[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, N.C., FLA.

[Rick Halperin]

May 12



TEXAS----execution

Houston killer executed



Derrick Dewayne Charles, condemned for the 2002 Houston murders of his teenage 
girlfriend, her mother and her grandfather, was executed in the state death 
house Tuesday after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to review whether the 
killer wrongly had been refused help in developing an incompetency claim.

Charles, 32, was the 7th Texas killer to be put to death this year. The 
sentence was carried out with a single lethal injection of pentobarbital.

In petitions to the Supreme Court, Charles' laywers argued that lower courts 
had erred in denying him funds for a comprehensive mental health evaluation. An 
earlier record of mental health difficulties, they contended, warranted further 
exploration. The lawyers hoped to save their client's life through the high 
court's 1986 Ford vs. Wainwright decision, which held a killer may be spared 
execution if his "mental illness prevents him from comprehending the reasons 
for the penalty or its implications."

Charles was convicted in the July 2002 murders of Myiesha Bennett, 15, her 
mother, Brenda Bennett, 44, and her grandfather, Obie Bennett, 77.

According to court documents, Charles was angry with Brenda Bennett for telling 
police he was having sex with her underage daughter. On the day of the killing, 
Charles, high from smoking marijuana adulterated with embalming fluid, 
surreptitiously came to the Bennett's northeast Houston home, and again had sex 
with the teen. When Myiesha and her mother later left to run an errand, Charles 
lingered in the teen's bedroom, until he was discovered by the girl's 
grandfather.

Charles, who later pleaded guilty to the capital murder charge, beat the old 
man with athletic trophies and other items before strangling him with a lamp 
cord. When Myiesha and her mother returned hours later, Charles bound them.

He then beat Myiesha with stereo speakers, dropped a television set on her head 
and strangled her. Charles placed Brenda Bennett in a water-filled bathtub, 
into which he tossed a plugged-in television set. When electrocution failed to 
result, Charles dragged the woman from the bathroom, then sexually assaulted 
and strangled her.

Prior to the killings, Charles had been assessed a 3-year prison sentence for 
burglary of a habitation. He had been paroled 7 months before the murders.

Charles was pronounced dead at about 6:30 p.m.

Charles becomes the 7th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in Texas 
and the 525th overall since the state resumed capital punishment on December 7, 
1982. Charles becomes the 7th condemned inmate to be put to death in Texas 
since Greg Abbott became governor in January of this year.

Charles also becomes the 14th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in 
the USA and the 1408th overall since the nation resumed executions on January 
17, 1977. There were 20 executions in the USA last year by this date.

(sources: Houston Chronicle & Rick Halperin)

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

Houston man convicted of killing 3 put to death



A Texas inmate was executed Tuesday for the killings of his 15-year-old 
girlfriend, her mother and her grandfather nearly 13 years ago in Houston.

Derrick Dewayne Charles, 32, became the 7th prisoner put to death this year in 
the nation's most active capital punishment state. He was pronounced dead at 
6:36 p.m. CDT, 25 minutes after being given the execution drug.

Asked by the warden if he wanted to make a final statement, Charles replied: 
"Nah. I'm ready to go home."

As the pentobarbital took effect, he took 2 breaths, yawned and then appeared 
to go to sleep. 6 relatives of Charles' victims witnessed the execution, but he 
made no eye contact with them.

The lethal injection was carried out after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected 
arguments from Charles' attorneys that he was mentally incompetent for 
execution and that they needed time and court-approved money for experts and 
investigators to pursue that claim. Another appeal argued Charles' trial court 
also acted improperly by refusing to appoint psychiatric experts and 
investigators.

"We are disappointed with the Court's response," Paul Mansur, Charles' lead 
attorney, said in a statement. "Derrick Charles has a lifelong history of 
severe mental illness. While the Court has ruled that it is unconstitutional to 
execute the insane - those people without a rational understanding of why they 
are being executed - it is a hollow promise without resources and evaluation.

"Derrick Charles and his deteriorating mental condition deserved that."

State lawyers opposing Charles' appeals said his attorneys had made similar 
arguments about his competency before and that the courts rejected those.

Charles pleaded guilty to capital murder charges in 2003 for the slayings of 
Myiesha Bennett, her mother, Brenda Bennett, 44, and her grandfather, Obie 
Bennett, 77. Their bodies were discovered at their Houston home in July 2002.

Charles, then 19, was arrested the next day at a motel where police also found 
Brenda Bennett's car. Relatives said she was not pleased with Charles' sexual 
relationship with her teenage daughter.

Charles had a juvenile record, was convicted as an adult of burglary, received 
three years in prison, served eight months and was paroled. Court records show 
a warrant was issued for his arrest after he met once with his parole officer, 
then ignored subsequent required meetings.

After Charles pleaded guilty in court to the capital murder charges, a Harris 
County jury had to choose between a life prison term and a death sentence.

They chose death after testimony showed Obie Bennett was beaten and strangled 
and Myiesha Bennett was choked with an extension cord, beaten with a box 
containing stereo speakers and hit with a TV. Evidence also showed Brenda 
Bennett was thrown into a bathtub filled with water and a plugged-in TV. When 
that failed to electrocute her, she was dragged through the house, raped and 
strangled.

Court documents indicated Charles said he smoked marijuana soaked in embalming 
fluid before the killings, then hallucinated while committing them.

At least 2 more Texas inmates are scheduled for lethal injection over the next 
several weeks. Charles' execution leaves the Texas Department of Criminal 
Justice with enough pentobarbital to carry out the 1st one, set for June 3. To 
accommodate the 2nd one scheduled for June 15, the prison agency will need to 
replenish its supply, a task that has become increasingly difficult as 
drugmakers have refused to sell their products to state corrections departments 
nationwide for execution use.

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

Executions under Greg Abbott, Jan. 21, 2015-present----7

Executions in Texas: Dec. 7, 1982----present-----525

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

8----------June 3--------------------Les Bower------------526

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

(sources: TDCJ & Rick Halperin)








NORTH CAROLINA:

NC death penalty also puts pharmacists in ethical bind



The N.C. Senate will soon vote on a bill that would allow executions to go 
forward without a physician's supervision. The lawmakers who introduced this 
legislation say they believe it will help clear the way for executions to 
resume in North Carolina by eliminating the hurdle of finding a doctor willing 
to break his oath to do no harm.

However, doctors are not the only medical professionals involved in the death 
penalty in North Carolina. Pharmacists play the critical role of supplying 
drugs for lethal injection and are also being asked to violate their 
profession's ethical code by participating in executions.

Across the United States, pharmacists are increasingly being asked to play the 
role of executioner. Pharmaceutical companies that make drugs previously used 
in executions, for good reason, have decided they want to be in the business of 
curing, not killing, patients and have refused to sell their drugs to 
executioners. One drug manufacturer even has asked states to return any of its 
drugs purchased for executions.

The result is a drug shortage that has led prison officials to experiment with 
new drug cocktails, some of them manufactured by compounding pharmacists.

Were North Carolina to restart executions, it would almost certainly be forced 
to turn to similar methods of procuring drugs. That is presumably the reason 
legislators added a last-minute provision to their bill that, in addition to 
removing doctors from the execution chamber, would keep secret information 
about who carries out executions, what types of drugs are used and from where 
those drugs come.

Pharmacists should not be part of such human experimentation, nor should they 
play a role in an intentional killing - much less one that is carried out in a 
secretive manner.

In the past few months, both the American Pharmacists Association and the 
International Academy of Compounding Pharmacists have announced that supplying 
execution drugs constitutes a violation of pharmacists' ethics. A pharmacist 
who violates the rules of his own professional associations unnecessarily opens 
himself up to the possibility of professional discipline or an expensive 
lawsuit.

Every pharmacist takes an oath to "consider the welfare of humanity and relief 
of suffering my primary concerns" and to apply "my knowledge, experience, and 
skills to the best of my ability to assure optimal outcomes for my patients." 
Whether or not you support the death penalty as a matter of public policy, 
providing the drugs for an execution clearly violates this oath.

In 2006, I retired after 30 years as executive director of the N.C. Board of 
Pharmacy. In no way would helping to kill a person fit in with my life's work 
to protect public health and welfare.

The reasons for pharmacists to sit out executions go beyond simple ethics.

Lethal injection is a complicated medical procedure with the potential to go 
terribly wrong. The series of botched and torturous executions we have seen in 
states such as Oklahoma, Ohio and Arizona make that abundantly clear.

If the legislature's current bill passes, North Carolina will have even fewer 
safeguards against botched executions than those states do. For a process in 
which errors have become rampant, we should be increasing scrutiny and 
safeguards, not eliminating them. The public has a right to know whether an 
execution method is torturous.

As pharmacists, we rely on the public's trust that we have our patients' best 
interests at heart. It would embarrass and compromise our profession to 
participate in a process conducted in secrecy, that has the potential to cause 
an agonizing death and that violates our promise to relieve suffering.

(source: Op-Ed; David Work lives in Wilmington----News & Observer)








FLORIDA----new death sentence

Wood sentenced to death for retired game warden's murder



Zachary Taylor Wood was sentenced to death in a historic decision Tuesday.

Fourteenth Judicial Circuit Judge Christopher Patterson announced the sentence 
for Wood's part in the murder of retired game warden James "Coon" Shores. While 
it was not the 1st death sentence to be recommended by a jury, the sentence is 
the 1st to be handed down by a judge in a Washington County courtroom under the 
county's modern judicial history.

Wood delivered a statement to the court during the sentencing, both apologizing 
to the victim's family and stating he felt Patterson would give him the death 
penalty to "further his political career."

"I'm convicted of something I didn't do," Wood said. "Killing me isn't going to 
bring Mr. Shores back."

A jury recommended death for Wood in February after finding him guilty of 
1st-degree murder, burglary of a structure while armed with a firearm and 
robbery with a firearm.

Washington County sheriff's deputies found Shores, 66, shot to death on his 
Johnson Road property in April 2014. Deputies arrived after they received 
information from Alabama law enforcement that a vehicle connected to the 
shooting of a state trooper was registered to Shores.

Testimony indicated Shores found Wood and his co-defendant, Dillon Rafsky, on 
his family land after they had burglarized his family's old homestead, which is 
located on the property.

According to law enforcement, Shores told the men to leave and was then beaten, 
bound at his feet and hands, and shot execution-style. Prosecutors stated 
Shores also was doused with an accelerant in an attempt to set him on fire.

In addition to the death penalty for Shores' murder, Wood is sentenced to serve 
100 years each for the burglary and robbery counts.

Wood offered to testify against Rafsky during his trial, which is expected to 
take place this fall.

The sentence is subject to automatic review by the Florida Supreme Court, and 
Wood's family says they are preparing for an appeal.

"This has been a miscarriage of justice," said Wood's sister, Heather Griffin. 
"Zack wasn't tried by a jury of his peers; he was tried by a jury of Mr. 
Shores' peers. He was not given a fair trial.

"Zack is not responsible for Mr. Shore's death. He is a victim. The 
co-defendant beat and shot Zack" before Shores' murder. Griffin added that she 
believed Wood's guilty verdict was rendered in part because of his romantic 
relationship with Rafsky.

"If this would have been a traditional relationship, Zack would have not been 
punished for his abuser's crime," she said. "I am truly sorry to the Shores 
family, but there is no peace without forgiveness in your heart."

Shores' family says they are simply glad the trial and sentencing are over.

"We're glad it's over with, but we're not excited about it because (Wood's 
family) lost a loved one, too," said James Shores' older brother, Joe Boy 
Shores. "We feel for their family."

(source: Panama City News Herald)