[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, DEL., N.C, GA., MO., KAN., NEB.

[Rick Halperin]

May 13



TEXAS----execution

Texas executes mentally incompetent death row prisoner



Derrick Dwayne Charles was executed Tuesday in Texas at the Walls Unit 
execution chamber in Huntsville. Charles, 32, was injected with a single dose 
of pentobarbital and was pronounced dead at 6:36 p.m. local time.

Charles's execution went forward after the US Supreme Court declined to review 
whether he had been wrongly refused help in developing an incompetency claim 
based on his mental disability. He was the 7th prisoner executed in Texas so 
far this year, more than in any other state.

Charles was convicted and sentenced to death in 2003 for the killings 13 years 
ago of his 15-year-old girlfriend Myiesha Bennett, her mother Brenda Bennett 
and her grandfather Obie Bennett. 19 years old at the time, Charles told 
authorities that he was high from smoking marijuana soaked in embalming fluid 
and was delusional when he committed the crimes. He pleaded guilty to capital 
murder, leaving it to a jury to decide whether he should receive a life 
sentence or the death penalty.

The US Supreme Court denied a last-minute appeal on Charles's behalf to stay 
his execution, despite clear signs of his intellectual disability. In 1986, the 
high court ruled in Ford v. Wainwright that an individual should be spared 
execution if "mental illness prevents him from comprehending the reasons for 
the penalty or its implications."

Charles's lawyers argued that their client "suffered from severe and 
debilitating mental illness since childhood" as a result of genetic inheritance 
and his childhood environment.

Recently, the Houston-based US District Court for the Southern District of 
Texas also rejected Charles's petitions for a stay and for funds to hire a 
mental health expert to develop his insanity claim. Turning down the petitions, 
US judge Nancy Atlas also seized on the technicality that Charles???s attorney 
waited 4 months after the state had set an execution date before turning to the 
courts.

The Fifth Circuit Court of appeals in New Orleans refused to halt Charles's 
execution as well.

Charles's appellate attorney, Paul Mansur of the Texas Defender Service, argued 
in a series of unsuccessful appeals that Charles received some psychiatric care 
as an adolescent and most likely suffered from attention deficit disorder, 
depression and a possible brain injury. Court documents assert that his mother 
suffered from schizophrenia.

According to court records, Charles was diagnosed with depressive disorder and 
at age 10 was violent toward his peers, lost his temper easily, had witnessed 
domestic violence and had to undergo treatment due to "serious dysfunctionality 
at home and at school." A psychological assessment notes that he came from a 
"very deprived background."

Hospital records show that Charles was at risk for mental anguish and suicide 
and suffered seizures and stuttering as an infant. In 1995, his parents 
admitted him to the hospital for symptoms of depression, lack of sleep, 
irritability and violent outbursts, including fights at school. Hospital 
records at the time showed Charles testing "in the intellectually deficient 
range of intelligence" and exhibiting "some signs of neurological problems."

This record of mental impairment was not enough to sway the courts to spare 
Derrick Charles's life.

Texas lawmakers are also intent on keeping the state's killing machine going, 
despite a shortage of pentobarbital, the lethal drug used by the state to send 
prisoners to their deaths. After Charles???s execution, Texas has only 2 more 
doses of the deadly barbiturate on hand.

In a 23-8 vote Monday, a state Senate measure to keep the names of execution 
drug providers from the public won initial approval. State Sen. Joan Huffman 
said her legislation, Senate Bill 1697, was a "practical solution" to the 
harassment and threats faced by companies who provide pentobarbital to the 
state prison system. A similar measure has been proposed in the Texas House.

"Discussion in the public area has led to a chilling effect for companies who 
want to supply this compound to the state of Texas," Huffman said. "There are 
very few doses left of the drug that's currently being administered."

Texas and other states have turned to compounding pharmacies, which are only 
loosely regulated, for the drugs for lethal injections, as manufacturers in the 
US and Europe have stopped providing them for use in executions.

In 2013, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) announced that the 
Woodlands Compounding Pharmacy, near Houston, had provided it with doses of 
pentobarbital. The Woodlands owner said public knowledge of the transaction led 
to threats against the pharmacy. After this, the TDCJ stopped releasing the 
names of its pentobarbital suppliers.

Last year, then-Texas attorney general Greg Abbott concluded that the names of 
the compounding pharmacies could be kept secret, despite the fact that such 
information has long been public. A Travis County judge then ruled in December 
that the prison system must make the providers' identities public. TDCJ has 
refused to release the names of its drug sources as the issue plays out.

State Senator Kirk Watson, an opponent of Senate Bill 1697, commented, "We are 
moving into an area here where we are talking about contracts with the state 
that we are going to hide from the public."

Attorneys for death row inmates in Texas and other states argue that such 
secrecy on the lethal chemicals makes it impossible to ensure that the state 
can carry out an execution in line with the Eighth Amendment's prohibition on 
cruel and unusual punishment. They point to a series of recent executions in 
which condemned inmates displayed clear signs of pain during their lethal 
injections.

These executions included that of Michael Wilson in Oklahoma, who said, "I feel 
my whole body burning" while strapped to the gurney; Dennis McGuire in Ohio, 
who gasped for air and choked for about 10 minutes before dying; and Clayton 
Lockett in Oklahoma, who regained consciousness during his execution, writhing 
and moaning, before finally succumbing 43 minutes later.

Of the 1,408 executions carried out in the US since the Supreme Court 
reinstated the death penalty in 1976, 525 of them have been in Texas.

(source: World Socialist Web Site)

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

Texas Is Almost Out Of Execution Drug Again. The Legislature Is Trying to Help.



As has happened with regularity over the past couple of years, the Texas 
Department of Criminal Justice is almost out of pentobarbital, it's drug of 
choice for killing condemned murderers.

According to information released by the TDCJ Monday to the Texas Tribune, it 
has 3 pentobarbital doses left. That's enough to make it through Gregory 
Russeau, scheduled to die June 18 for bludgeoning 75-year-old James Syvertson 
to death in Tyler in 2001.

The TDCJ has problems acquiring the drug because pharmacists and drug companies 
are uncomfortable helping the state kill people, especially if the identity of 
those providing the drugs is made public. Upon being outed in 2013, Dr. Jasper 
Lovoi, a compounding pharmacist from the Woodlands, asked the state for his 
drugs back.

"I, and my staff, are very busy operating our pharmacy, and do not have the 
time to deal with the constant inquiries from the press, the hate mail and 
messages ... Please contact me immediately to arrange for the return of the 
drugs," he said at the time.

After the Lovoi incident, then-Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott agreed that 
the agency could keep pentobarbital provider's identities secret, going against 
longstanding policy. A Travis County judge ruled against that decision in 
December.

A bill passed by the Texas Senate on Tuesday would clear the mess up.

"Discussion in the public area has led to a chilling effect for companies who 
want to supply this compound to the state of Texas," Senator Joan Huffman, S.B. 
1697's author, said Monday. "There are very few doses left of the drug that's 
currently being administered."

Huffman's plan, which she called a practical solution, would make it state law 
to keep the names of execution drug providers secret.

Kirk Watson, a Democrat from Austin, criticized the bill for decreasing 
transparency.

"We are talking about contracts with the state that we are going to hide from 
the public," he said.

(source: Dallas Observer)








DELAWARE:

Death penalty repeal supporters rally Wednesday morning



About 50 people rallied outside of Legislative Hall Wednesday morning to 
support repealing Delaware's death penalty, calling capital punishment an 
ineffective tool applied with racial and socioeconomic bias.

"Delaware and all other states should look in their history and see that they 
have done enough killing over the years," said James Marshall of Dover. "The 
state that started a nation, we started it on destruction and killing, now what 
do we want to do? Continue that lifestyle forever?"

The rally, put on by the Delaware Death Penalty Repeal Project, comes hours 
before a crucial House committee. Lawmakers on the House Judiciary Committee 
will decide whether or not to release the bill for a full hearing midday 
Thursday.

Rep. Sean Lynn, D-Dover, the bill's sponsor, has said the vote will be close 
and he doesn't expect it to turn out in his favor. Lynn has vowed to take any 
steps necessary to get the bill to a full hearing on the House floor, including 
a procedural measure that would bypass the committee entirely.

Supporters say now is the time for Delaware to get out of the murder business. 
The death penalty, they say, is an expensive and ineffective measure. It 
doesn't prevent crime, they said. But opponents of repealing the death penalty 
say capital punishment is a crime deterrent and is an effective punishment for 
the most heinous of perpetrators.

Also at the rally Wednesday morning was Tariq "Black Thought" Trotter, 
co-founder of The Roots, a Philadelphia hip-hop group and the house band on 
Jimmy Fallon's The Tonight Show.

Trotter said Wednesday that repealing the death penalty is an important civil 
rights and social justice issue. Capital punishment, he said, is applied with a 
systematic bias.

"It's an antiquated concept," he said. "It represents the worst of the American 
justice system."

Delaware is 1 of 32 states that employs capital punishment. The last inmate put 
to death was Shannon Johnson, 28, in April 2012, by lethal injection.

Senate lawmakers passed the repeal measure 11-9 in April. Legislation to end 
capital punishment in Delaware failed in a House committee in 2013.

15 inmates are currently sitting on Delaware's death row. They would be exempt 
from the repeal legislation, should it pass.

Gov. Jack Markell came out in support of the legislation last week, saying that 
the death penalty is an "instrument of imperfect justice."

(source: The News Journal)








NORTH CAROLINA:

Jamell Cureton: Throw my charges out



Jamell Cureton, facing the death penalty in what authorities describe as the 
gang-related slayings of 3 people, appears in Charlotte federal court Wednesday 
to ask that the charges be thrown out.

Cureton says his right to defend himself has been undermined by a Jan. 12 raid 
on his Mecklenburg County jail cell. During the search, FBI agent seized 
protected correspondence between Cureton and his attorney among other 
documents, the 22-year-old Charlotte man says.

In a 4-page, handwritten letter to U.S. District Judge Max Cogburn, Cureton 
says some of the documents have yet to be returned, and he believes they have 
been shared with prosecutors. That, he says, compromises his right to a fair 
trial.

"I honestly see no possible way to properly or effectively defend myself," 
Cureton wrote.

Cureton is among 12 reputed members of the United Blood Nation charged with 
running a criminal enterprise in Charlotte. He is charged with the 2013 murder 
of Kwamne Clyburn in a Charlotte park and of planning the lake-home hit on Doug 
and Debbie London last October. A 51-page federal indictment says the couple 
was killed to keep the husband from testifying against three gang members who 
attempted to rob the Londons' mattress store last May. Cureton was wounded by 
Doug London during the attempt.

In all, the indictment accuses Cureton of 10 crimes; 6 carry a potential death 
penalty. At the time of the FBI raid, he was being held on an attempted robbery 
charge. He has pleaded not guilty to all counts.

In separate filings, Cureton and his attorney, Chiege Okwara of Charlotte, say 
the charges should be thrown out because of violations of Cureton's due 
process, protection from unlawful search and seizures, and attorney-client 
confidentiality.

Okwara alleges that the documents taken and read by the FBI included legal 
strategy and advice. She says investigators have used the information to 
broaden their probe and to interview new witnesses.

During the search of Cureton's cell, the FBI also found a photo collage that 
included the images of presiding U.S. District Judge Frank Whitney and two 
other public figures, which led to the 3 being placed under protective watch. 
Afterward, Whitney stepped down from presiding over Cureton's case. He was 
replaced by Cogburn.

In his letter, Cureton accused the FBI of releasing information about the cell 
search to the media, who then "plastered that knowledge" across the media, 
"slandering my name and image."

Both the FBI and U.S. Attorney's Office declined to comment Tuesday.

(source: WBTV.com)








GEORGIA:

Former justice calls for end to death penalty



A former chief justice of Georgia's highest court on Tuesday strongly renounced 
the death penalty and called for its abolition.

Norman Fletcher, who served 15 years on the Georgia Supreme Court, said the 
death penalty is "morally indefensible," "makes no business sense" and is not 
applied fairly and consistently.

"Capital punishment must be permanently halted, without exception," Fletcher 
said. "It will not be easy, but it can and will be accomplished."

Fletcher, now a Rome lawyer, retired from the state Supreme Court in 2005. 
Although considered one of the court's more liberal members, he cast numerous 
votes upholding death sentences. In more recent years, he has signed on to 
legal briefs urging courts to halt the executions of a number of condemned 
inmates. Fletcher made his remarks Tuesday evening at the Summerour Studio near 
Atlantic Station, where he received the Southern Center for Human Rights' 
Gideon's Promise Award for his role in helping create a statewide public 
defender system.

In his acceptance speech, Fletcher said he was about to ???shock??? those 
attending the ceremony. Lawyers who once criticized his decisions upholding 
death sentences were justified, he said.

"With wisdom gained over the past 10 years, I am now convinced there is 
absolutely no justification for continuing to impose the sentence of death in 
this country," Fletcher said.

Since a nationwide moratorium on capital punishment was lifted in 1976, more 
than 150 people on death row have been exonerated. Fletcher added, "There can 
be no doubt that actually innocent persons have been executed in this country."

Too often, Fletcher contended, budgetary issues, race and politics factor into 
the decision-making of whether to seek the death penalty.

Fletcher cited the late U.S. Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun, who once 
said he could "no longer tinker with the machinery of death." Blackmun made 
this declaration before he retired from the high court in 1994.

"It is time for us to quit the tinkering and totally abolish this barbaric 
system," Fletcher said.

(source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution)








MISSOURI----new execution date

Missouri Sets June Execution Date for Richard Strong



The Missouri Supreme Court has set a June execution date for a man convicted of 
fatally stabbing his girlfriend and her 2-year-old daughter in 2000.

The court yesterday ordered 48-year-old Richard Strong to be executed June 9th 
for the deaths of Eva Washington and her daughter, Zandrea Thomas. The victims 
were found dead October 23rd, 2000, in Washington's apartment in the St. Louis 
suburb of St. Ann.

Strong was convicted of 1st-degree murder in May 2003 and sentenced to death. 
The state Supreme Court affirmed the conviction and sentence in August 2004.

(source: Associated Press)



KANSAS:

Get rid of death penalty



I am a very concerned citizen opposed to Kansas continuing to support the death 
penalty.

The cost of the death penalty to our society is financially astronomical. The 
possibility for multiple appeals, extra preparation and separate sentencing 
phases for capital cases increases the cost. In 2014 the Judicial Council Study 
found that defense and district court costs are 3 to 4 times higher for trials 
where the death penalty is sought. The impact of the death penalty on local 
communities resulted in increased costs to the county budgets and local taxes. 
The emotional cost cannot be calculated in terms of a dollar amount. Currently 
some of the survivors of the Boston bombing have reported that the potential 
for a string of appeals for Tsarnaev would keep attention on him for years 
causing them to relive the most painful days of their lives. Bryan Stevenson, 
Lawyer, Executive Director of the Equal Justice Initiative in Montgomery, 
Alabama and professor states that "the death penalty is not about whether 
people deserve to die for the crimes they commit," but rather "Do we deserve to 
kill?" Kansas wake up and abolish the death penalty for life without the 
possibility of parole.

Maryon Habtemariam, Wichita

(source: Letter to the Editor, The Kansan)








NEBRASKA:

Prosecutors Seek Death Penalty in Deaths of Boy, Mother



Prosecutors plan to seek the death penalty for a Nebraska man charged with 
killing his mother, throwing his 5-year-old half brother in a river and leaving 
his 11-month-old half brother in a dumpster.

Douglas County Attorney Don Kleine said Monday that several aggravating factors 
exist in the case against 25-year-old Roberto Martinez-Marinero.

Authorities say Martinez-Marinero surrendered to police Thursday and said he'd 
stabbed his mother, 45-year-old Jesus Ismenia Marinero.

The 25-year-old man also said he'd thrown Josue Ramirez-Marinero in the Elkhorn 
River and put Angel Ramirez-Marinero in the dumpster.

Authorities found a body Monday that investigators believe is Josue.

Angel was found bruised but alive Wednesday in the dumpster in La Vista. His 
mother's body was found Wednesday night in a southeast Omaha ditch.

(source Associated Press)