[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, OHIO, TENN., KAN., NEB.

[Rick Halperin]

May 15



TEXAS:

Dallas Case Has Appeals Court Looking At Mental Capacity & The Death Penalty



The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals ruled that a Dallas County judge has the 
right to hold a hearing to figure out whether an accused murderer has the 
mental capacity to face the death penalty.

When the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that executing the intellectually disabled is 
unconstitutional it was up to the states to pass new laws - Texas never did.

Now comes the case of Tyrone Allen, who is accused of capital murder. Allen is 
accused of shooting and killing his pregnant girlfriend, Breshuana Jackson, and 
shooting a police officer during a high-speed chase before surrendering after a 
4-hour standoff.

Allen is also listed in the Texas sex offender list for 2 convictions of 
indecency with a child by exposure, 1 in 2000 and 1 in 2001. He was sentenced 
to a year in prison on both occasions.

Prosecutors want the now 28-year-old Dallas man put to death. Defense lawyers 
want a judge to decide, before the trial, whether Allen is "intellectually 
disabled and thus immune from the death penalty."

Legal analyst Ed Klein says it's clear the case is a long way from being 
decided. "Surely someone's going to take it up on appeal, to question whether 
or not what the legislature has passed is constitutional or protects the 
defendants rights properly."

Klein says the legislature has sidestepped the question of mental capacity and 
the death penalty for more than 10 years. "It appears that the Court of 
Criminal Appeals is saying, 'Look, you're going to have finish the case first 
and then bring it up and we'll decide whether or not what you did was 
constitutional perhaps. Or, you have to wait until the legislature passes some 
statutes to give you guidance.'"

Lawyers claim Allen's IQ is too low to qualify for the death penalty. 
Prosecutors say it's a question for the jury to decide, if indeed he is 
convicted.

No hearing date in Allen's case has been set.

(source: CBS news)








OHIO:

Mentally ill murderers would avoid death penalty under new Ohio Senate bill



New bipartisan legislation in the Ohio Senate seeks to prohibit the death 
penalty for murderers diagnosed with a serious mental illness.

Under Senate Bill 162, the death penalty could not be imposed on a murderer 
with an illness such as schizophrenia or bipolar disorder that "significantly 
impaired" his or her ability to exercise rational judgment, follow the law, or 
appreciate the nature of their crime.

The rule would apply even in cases where the defendant was found competent to 
stand trial and didn't meet the standard to be found not guilty by reason of 
insanity.

The bill would further allow murderers already on death row to seek 
resentencing if they can prove they have a serious mental illness. Those 
inmates would have 1 year after the bill becomes law to file such a petition.

The proposal was one of more than 50 recommendations made last year by an Ohio 
Supreme Court task force studying reforms to the state's capital punishment 
system.

Republican Sen. Bill Seitz of Cincinnati - who served on the task force - and 
Democratic Sen. Sandra Williams of Cleveland are sponsoring the bill.

(source: cleveland.com)








TENNESSEE----death row inmate dies

Longest-serving Tennessee death row inmate dies



The man who was the longest-serving inmate on Tennessee's death row died 
Wednesday of natural causes.

Donald Strouth, 56, was pronounced dead Wednesday evening at a Nashville 
hospital, according to a news release from the Department of Correction.

Strouth had been on death row since 1978 for the murder of a second-hand store 
owner in Kingsport. He knocked out and slashed the throat of Jimmy Keegan in a 
robbery, leaving his body behind in his store, where his wife later found him.

Strouth was 1 of more than 30 inmates challenging the state's single-drug 
lethal injection protocol in a pending Davidson County Chancery Court case.

More inmates died of natural causes on death row between 2004 and 2014 than 
were executed, and that trend continues. The last execution was in 2009.

David Miller, who was sentenced to death in 1982, is now the longest-serving 
inmate. Miller, who also is involved in the legal challenge to the death 
penalty, killed a disabled woman with a fire poker in 1981 in Knox County.

(source: The Tennessean)








KANSAS:

Death Penalty Expert Weighs In On Alleged JCC Shooter's Desire To Represent 
Himself



A Johnson County judge agreed Thursday to let accused Jewish Community Center 
shooter Frazier Glenn Cross Jr. represent himself in court, a decision that 
could have far-reaching implications as the state pursues its capital case.

Cross, a known anti-Semite who has bragged to the media about killing 3 people 
last spring at 2 Overland Park Jewish sites, has repeatedly told Judge Thomas 
Kelly Ryan he doesn't trust his lawyers and wants them fired.

Before Thursday, Ryan had ignored Cross' frequent requests. But after District 
Attorney Stephen Howe pointed out that not allowing Cross to represent himself 
could be grounds for an appeal, Ryan relented. Still, the judge warned Cross he 
would be held to the same high standards as attorneys who have the expertise 
that could help him avoid the death penalty.

"These kinds of cases drive judges crazy," says Robert Dunham, executive 
director of the Death Penalty Information Center in Washington, D.C. "They 
drive judges crazy because the judges don't want the cases to be reversed, and 
they also want the defendants to get fair trials."

Ryan made his decision after asking Cross dozens of questions to assess his 
understanding of the situation.

"There are dangers, literally, of representing yourself," Ryan warned Cross.

Cross kept interrupting the judge.

"You're not going to talk me out of representing myself," he told Ryan.

Dunham called it "a terrible situation" for a judge, who has to weigh his 
instinct that a capital defendant is not capable of providing meaningful 
representation for himself against the right the U.S. Supreme Court has granted 
allowing self-representation in some cases.

The court previously found Cross competent to stand trial, but as Dunham points 
out, the test for legal competency falls short of a full mental health workup.

"That person will say they understand what the judge is saying, but they're 
going to proceed with self-representation. They're going to fire their lawyer 
because that person isn't going to do what it is they want done," Dunham says.

Dunham litigated capital cases in Pennsylvania for 2 decades, mostly at the 
appellate level, before assuming his current role. He says Cross' behavior in 
court - he's known for outbursts that have almost led to his removal - has 
raised red flags that could be used to overturn a conviction.

"Is this person really mentally competent to stand trial? Are these kinds of 
racist outbursts a product of dementia, a product of mental illness?" Dunham 
says, adding it's impossible to know without a full mental health history on 
Cross.

Cross' anti-Semitic beliefs date back to at least the 1970s. He was arrested in 
the 1980s with other Ku Klux Klan leaders and turned state's evidence in a plea 
deal. He got the name Cross while in the federal witness protection program. 
His surname before that was Miller, and both names have been used in court.

Dunham says it's not often a defendant will adamantly refuse legal help, but it 
happens with surprising frequency in capital cases where the defendant is 
emotionally disturbed.

"If you have someone who has a mentally ill delusion about the way the world 
works, and his lawyer is not going to run a crazy defense based on that 
delusion, the person will become very frustrated with their lawyer," Dunham 
says.

Cross demonstrated his lack of legal knowledge almost immediately when Ryan 
asked him to respond to a motion his lawyers had filed requesting a change of 
venue.

The motion called for either a venue study regarding the suitability of Johnson 
County as a trial location or for further arguments.

"Isn't there such a thing as self-evident?" Cross asked the judge. "The amount 
of TV and newspaper I've gotten?"

Cross conceded he'd brought some of that attention on himself, arranging 
interviews with the Kansas City Star and the Associated Press.

Ryan told Cross no, he couldn't argue it was "self-evident" why a change of 
venue should be granted. Ryan said they would take up the motion at Cross' next 
court appearance June 10, at which he said he hoped Cross would present a 
better argument.

"I hate to say I presume anything," Ryan told Cross before asking him a 
question about juror questionnaires, a thousand of which will be mailed out 
this summer once the prosecution and the defense hammer out what exactly will 
be on them.

Ryan instructed the district attorney to send a list of questions to Cross at 
the Johnson County Jail. He again rejected an earlier request Cross made for a 
computer but said he could possibly get a typewriter in his jail cell.

The trial is set for mid-August.

(source: KCUR news)








NEBRASKA:

Debate to repeal death penalty begins



The Nebraska Legislature began its Friday morning with what could be four hours 
of second-round debate on a bill to replace the death penalty with a life 
sentence.

"It's dark in the chamber and that is as it should be," said Sen. Dave 
Bloomfield of Hoskins, who said he would change his vote from the 1st round and 
vote to retain the death penalty.

Death penalty supporter Sen. Beau McCoy highlighted a recent case in Douglas 
County in which prosecutors say they will ask for the death penalty. A man is 
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.

McCoy introduced an amendment that would allow the people of Nebraska to vote 
in May 2016 on whether they support the death penalty.

Omaha Sen. Bob Krist asked senators to tone down the details of gruesome 
Nebraska death penalty cases, as were brought up in the 1st round of debate. 
Children often visit the Capitol and sit in the balconies to watch the 
Legislature as it debates.

But McCoy said senators weren't called here to "talk about nice things." He 
said if needed, he would ask Speaker Galen Hadley to "clear the galleries" so 
senators could speak freely.

Omaha Sen. Ernie Chambers, who introduced the bill (LB268), questioned Gov. 
Pete Ricketts' late afternoon announcement Thursday that he had purchased the 3 
drugs necessary to carry out the death penalty.

"Nebraska has not procured these drugs," he said. "No company in America 
produces sodium thiopental. There is none that will be exported by European 
countries."

The governor is going to have to show where these drugs come from, he said.

"So the timing of this announcement is very problematic," he said.

The governor and Attorney General Doug Peterson hoped that they could mislead 
members of the Legislature into thinking the drugs were here and that the 
Nebraska Supreme Court will issue death warrants, he said.

"But I guarantee you that is not going to happen," he said.

"When you implement something like this you unleash a whole new series of 
appeals that will start at the state level, go through the federal level."

On Friday, the ACLU of Nebraska filed an open records request to determine if 
the state's recent acquisition of drugs to be used in lethal injection was 
lawful.

A 2013 Federal Circuit Court ruling determined lethal injection drugs are 
subject to U.S. Food and Drug Administration oversight and importation rules 
and that states must obtain such drugs legally through licensed, inspected 
dealers.

The sodium thiopental, used to knock out the inmate, and pancuronium bromide, 
to cause paralysis, were ordered from Harris Pharma, Ricketts said Thursday. 
Harris Pharma has previously sold drugs to Nebraska that were unable to be 
used.

3 of Nebraska's 11 death-row inmates have exhausted all of their appeals. There 
hasn't been an execution since 1997.

Nebraska went to lethal injection after the state Supreme Court ruled in 2008 
that the electric chair amounted to unconstitutionally cruel and unusual 
punishment.

(source: Lincoln Journal Star)

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

Day after drug-purchase announcement, filibuster underway on death penalty 
repeal



Nebraska lawmakers took another step toward repealing the death penalty Friday, 
less than 24 hours after the state secured the needed drugs to carry out lethal 
injection.

Senators voted 30-16 to advance to the final round on a bill that would replace 
lethal injection with life in prison.

The vote came after death penalty supporters conducted a 4-hour filibuster in 
an effort to block the legislation. Senators voted 34-14 to cut off debate.

"We must deliver a punishment that makes it crystal clear how much we respect 
the innocent lives," said Sen. Beau McCoy of Omaha, who led the filibuster.

Gov. Pete Ricketts, who supports the death penalty, added another dimension to 
the debate Thursday night when he announced the state has purchased the drugs 
necessary to carry out an execution. 2 of the 3 drugs in Nebraska's lethal 
injection protocol had expired.

The newly purchased drugs will be imported from India. Sen. Ernie Chambers of 
Omaha, who introduced the repeal bill, said they will trigger a new round of 
appeals over how they were manufactured and obtained.

"The timing of this announcement is very problematic," Chambers said. "They do 
not have the drugs."

The governor's spokesman said the drugs will be tested by an independent 
laboratory for purity upon their arrival in Nebraska.

Attorney General Doug Peterson has said 3 of the 11 death row inmates have 
exhausted their appeals.

Lawmakers voted 30-13 after 1st-round debate to advance Legislative Bill 268. 
17 Republican senators joined with 12 Democrats and one Independent on the 
vote.

Sens. Jerry Johnson of Wahoo and Dave Bloomfield of Hoskins said learning the 
state had purchased the drugs caused him to reconsider their earlier votes. 
Johnson voted for repeal and Bloomfield abstained on 1st round.

Not since 1979 have Nebraska lawmakers voted to repeal capital punishment. But 
former Gov. Charles Thone vetoed the measure and an override vote failed.

(source: omaha.com)