[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----ARK., MO., OKLA., NEB., NEV., ARIZ., CALIF., USA

[Rick Halperin]

Oct. 28



ARKANSAS:

Lawyer for Arkansas says drug supplier sold execution chemicals while expecting 
secrecy


An assistant attorney general says the company that sold Arkansas execution 
drugs had contracts with manufacturers prohibiting the chemicals from being 
sold for use in death penalty cases, but made a deal anyway because a new state 
law ensured it would remain anonymous.

Jennifer Merritt later told a Pulaski County judge during the same hearing 
Tuesday that she didn't know what was in the contracts between the drug 
supplier and drug manufacturers.

Judge Wendell Griffen objected, saying state lawyers in earlier pleadings 
argued that disclosing the supplier would create an undue burden by forcing the 
company to acknowledge it violated contracts.

The Associated Press identified the three probable drug manufacturers last 
month, and all said they had supply chain protections to prevent their drugs 
from being sold to prisons.

(source: Associated Press)






MISSOURI----impending execution

Federal judge declines to block Missouri execution


A Missouri federal judge is refusing to block next week's execution of a 
cancer-stricken inmate who used a hammer in killing 3 workers of convenience 
store more than 2 decades ago.

U.S. District Court Chief Judge Greg Kays in Kansas City, Missouri, on Tuesday 
threw out Ernest Lee Johnson's request to intervene.

Johnson claimed in an appeal filed last week that his brain tumor constitutes a 
"unique medical condition" that could be exacerbated by Tuesday's scheduled 
lethal injection, possibly causing uncontrollable seizures and convulsions.

The state counters Missouri has carried out 18 rapid, painless executions since 
late 2013. Kays also sided with the state's argument that 55-year-old Johnson's 
appeal wasn't filed timely enough.

Johnson was convicted of killing 3 people in 1994 at a Columbia convenience 
store where they worked.

(source: Associated Press)






OKLAHOMA:

Competency Trial Resumes For Oklahoma Man In Beheading Death


Testimony resumed Tuesday in a trial to determine whether an Oklahoma man 
accused in the beheading of his co-worker is mentally competent to be tried for 
1st-degree murder.

The non-jury trial resumes for 31-year-old Alton Nolen, who is charged in the 
September 2014 slaying of 54-year-old Colleen Hufford at a food processing 
plant in Moore.

Authorities said Nolen attacked Hufford with a knife, beheading her. Nolen had 
just been suspended from his job at a Vaughan Foods processing plant where they 
worked when the attack occurred.

On Monday, a clinical psychologist testified that Nolen is mentally incompetent 
to be tried because he wants the death penalty and will not help his attorneys 
prepare his defense.

Dr. Anita Russell of Tulsa also said Nolen is intellectually impaired.

Nolen's cousin, Crystal Green, testified on Tuesday, saying that no one in the 
family ever said anything about Nolen having problems or being 
mentally-challenged.

Nolen's sister, 27-year-old Megan Nolen, also testified on Tuesday. Alton Nolen 
kept his face covered with his hands, and wouldn't even look at his sister 
while she testified.

Both Megan and Alton have the same mother, but different fathers. She said that 
Alton always needed help with school work, and she said the family would have 
to help him with his homework.

Megan testified that Alton often did not understand simple or complex 
conversations, and that he stuttered. She said she would describe her brother 
as having a learning disability.

Dr. Shawn Roberson, Director of Forensic Psychology at Oklahoma Forensic 
Center, does evaluations for both prosecutors and defense attorneys. He 
testified that Nolen said he had no concerns about the death penalty, since he 
believed in the afterlife and he did understand the charges levied against him.

Dr. Roberson said Nolen is competent enough to assist in his defense, but was 
just resistant, saying he would only answer as a Muslim and refused to answer 
questions. Robertson said Nolen understands the legal process, but refused to 
accept a plea deal. He only would accept the death penalty.

Dr. Roberson claims that Nolen said, "I'm a Muslim. I'm not scared to die." 
Robertson said Nolen could assist his attorneys if he chose to, so he feels 
Nolen is competent to stand trial.

Dr. Roberson testified that Nolen didn't show any signs of severe mental 
illnesses or had any history of it. He said there was no data to suggest Nolen 
had any mental retardation. And if it were a concern, he would have put it in 
the report. But he did not.

The state's psychologist testified it would not have skewed his opinion about 
Nolen's competency. He feels Nolen is competent to stand trial, and just 
chooses not to assist in his defense.

Roberson testified that he saw nothing that would show Nolen was at all 
intellectually-disabled. He did not consider him presently dangerous due to a 
mental illness, but he said that does not mean Nolen is not dangerous for other 
reasons.

Roberson claims IQ has not validity since a person can refuse to answer 
questions, or can give wrong answers on purpose. He said Nolen's elementary 
test scores started at a higher level scored better than 60 % of 1st graders, 
but progressively got worse and worse over the following years. Nolen did 
poorly in college, but he made "A's in some psychology courses.

(source: 9news.com)






NEBRASKA:

Nebraska AG defends wording on death penalty ballot measure


The Nebraska attorney general's office is defending language approved for a 
2016 death penalty ballot measure.

State attorneys argued in a court filing Tuesday that the ballot language is 
"sufficient, fair and not misleading." Death penalty opponents have challenged 
the wording in court, saying it's slanted in favor of the death penalty.

The ballot language informs voters that retaining the repeal law would 
eliminate capital punishment and change the "maximum" penalty for 1st-degree 
murder to life in prison.

Critics say the word "maximum" is misleading because it incorrectly implies 
that 1st-degree murder convicts could face a lesser sentence than life in 
prison.

Nebraska lawmakers abolished the death penalty in May, but the repeal measure 
was suspended until voters decide the issue next year.

(source: KETV news)

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

Group seeking 'actors' to oppose retaining death penalty


Nebraskans for Alternatives to the Death Penalty will sponsor a Theatre of The 
Oppressed Workshop from 6-9 p.m. on Friday at the Antler's Club, 2501 South St.

Organizers say the workshop is a way to empower interested individuals with the 
tools necessary to stage street theater performances in speaking out against 
the death penalty.

Mike Lee, a graduate of the Johnny Carson School of Theatre & Film at the 
University of Nebraska-Lincoln, will lead the workshop. Participants will learn 
techniques for making theater out of news stories, with the focus on 
Nebraska???s referendum vote in 2016 to repeal the bill abolishing the death 
penalty.

(source: Journal Star)






NEVADA:

Driver could get death sentence for killing aspiring rapper in fiery Vegas 
Maserati crash


A self-styled pimp who flashed $100 bills at a casino valet minutes before a 
fatal vehicle chase was found guilty of killing 3 people by shooting into a 
moving car and triggering a fiery crash on the Las Vegas Strip.

Ammar Asim Faruq Harris sat still and gave no reaction as the verdicts were 
read Monday in Nevada state court.

Family members of the dead sobbed in the courtroom but said in the hallway they 
felt justice was done with the finding that Harris fatally wounded an aspiring 
rapper behind the wheel of a Maserati and killed a taxi driver and a tourist 
from Washington state who perished in a fireball chain-reaction crash.

"An eye for an eye," said Kenneth Cherry Sr., of Oakland, California, the 
father of the slain Maserati driver. "I hate to see another black man go down. 
But I'm going to follow this thing through to the end."

"Ecstatic," Tehran Boldon, brother of cab driver Michael Boldon, said of the 
jury verdict. "They saw the same thing we all knew. Let God forgive him, I'm 
not."

James Sutton, husband of taxi passenger Sandra Sutton-Wasmund of Maple Valley, 
Washington, indicated he was too emotional to comment.

Clark County District Court Judge Kathleen Delaney told jurors they'll 
reconvene next Monday to decide if the 29-year-old Harris should be sentenced 
to death.

No one disputed during the weeklong trial that Harris was the shooter.

Video showed the black Range Rover he was driving jockeying for position with 
the Maserati in a tire-squealing chase between stoplights on neon-lit Las Vegas 
Boulevard.

Several angles showed apparent gunshots from the SUV before the sports car 
accelerated through a red light and ignited a flaming crash in front of the 
Caesars Palace and Flamingo resorts. Cameras caught the Range Rover speeding 
away in the night.

Although police found no gun in the wrecked Maserati, and no bullet holes were 
found in the Range Rover, Harris' lawyers, Thomas Ericsson and Robert Langford, 
maintained the shooting was self-defense.

"We'll just get ready for the next phase," Ericsson said after the verdict.

The jury and 4 alternates heard a week of testimony from dozens of prosecution 
witnesses, but never heard from Harris himself. The judge reminded the pool of 
5 men and 11 women they aren't allowed to view media accounts of the case until 
proceedings are complete.

The panel deliberated less than 20 minutes -- a stunningly rapid unanimous 
decision after a long afternoon of closings that had prosecutor Pamela Weckerly 
casting Harris as a man so ego-driven that a "sense of insult" was enough to 
spark a murderous rampage.

"It was not a random act. It was not an act done in self-defense," prosecutor 
David Stanton said. He called shooting from one moving vehicle into another at 
the busiest intersection of Las Vegas an intentionally reckless and homicidal 
act.

Weckerly pointed to testimony that after the shooting, when it became clear 
that police weren't immediately chasing him, Harris told friends he wanted to 
go to a strip club to see a friend who danced there.

Harris, who grew up in Brooklyn, New York, and lived in Miami and Atlanta, fled 
Las Vegas the next day. He was arrested a week later in Los Angeles.

Jurors won't be told during the penalty phase that Harris was convicted in 2013 
and sentenced to 16 years to life in prison for raping and robbing an 
18-year-old woman at a Las Vegas condominium in June 2010. The case is being 
appealed to the Nevada Supreme Court.

The jury does know that Harris was convicted in South Carolina in 2004 of a 
felony weapon charge, and that he was convicted earlier this year of bribing a 
Nevada prison guard to smuggle cellphones, takeout chicken and vodka to him 
behind bars.

(soruce: Associated Press)






ARIZONA:

Arizona court refuses to hear challenge to death penalty law


The Arizona Supreme Court is refusing to hear an appeal arguing that Arizona's 
death penalty law is unconstitutionally arbitrary.

The justices declined without comment Tuesday to consider an appeal filed on 
behalf of a murder defendant whose position was supported by 10 other 
defendants.

Under U.S. Supreme Court decisions, death is supposed to be reserved for the 
worst of the worst murders, and states' laws are supposed to define those 
cases.

At issue in the challenge were the Arizona law's numerous possible 
circumstances when the death penalty could apply.

(source: Associated Press)






CALIFORNIA:

California takes step toward using 1 drug in executions


California took the next step Tuesday in its plan to use a single drug to 
execute condemned prisoners, nine years after the nation's most populous state 
last carried out the death penalty.

Spurred by a lawsuit, the state sent its proposed new procedures to the 
California Office of Administrative Law, but they won't be published for more 
than a week. The regulations for using 1 drug instead of the current 3 were 
proposed as numerous states grapple with their execution policies because of 
legal challenges and a shortage of lethal drugs.

The regulations were submitted to meet a deadline in a legal settlement between 
the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation and families of murder victims 
who accused the state of dragging its heels.

No one has been executed in California since 2006 after a federal judge ordered 
an overhaul of the state's lethal injection procedures but said California 
could resume executions if it began using a single drug.

Gov. Jerry Brown said in 2012 that California would consider switching to a 
single-drug lethal injection, but officials said the process stalled for 3 
years, in part because of the nationwide shortage of execution drugs.

The proposed regulations are expected to be published Nov. 6. That will trigger 
a 62-day public comment period capped by a public hearing, department 
spokeswoman Terry Thornton said.

Even inmates - including the 747 awaiting execution on death row - will be able 
to weigh in.

In 2011, a Marin County judge invalidated the state's previous attempt at 
drafting regulations because she said the state failed to explain why it chose 
the 3-drug mixture over the 1-drug method.

(source: Associated Press)

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

Juror Exclusion Justifies New Murder Trial


A black man convicted of 2 murders and sentenced to death in 1989 can seek a 
new trial because the prosecution excluded a black prospective juror, the Ninth 
Circuit ruled.

After a California jury convicted Steven Crittenden, he filed a federal habeas 
petition, arguing that a prospective juror, nonparty Manzanita Casey, was 
excluded because she is black, in violation of the Equal Protection Clause of 
the 14th Amendment.

The prosecutor claimed that he gave Casey the most unfavorable rating, XXXX, 
because she opposed the death penalty, and that he chose jurors "who had 
something to lose in society, who might be victims of crime, solid citizens, 
preferably well educated," according to court records.

But Crittenden argued that Casey was a "solid member of the . . . community in 
terms of age, family composition, employment, length of residence, and so 
forth," the prosecutor examined her longer than other jurors, and the same 
prosecutor struck the only black prospective juror in a similar case, court 
filings show.

An Eastern California district court first denied the petition, finding that 
the prosecutor would have cut Casey even if race had played no role, since she 
was against the death penalty. But the lower court later granted the petition 
on remand, finding the prosecutor was substantially motivated by race.

The district court held that a comparison of Casey and the only other potential 
juror rated XXXX, Lois Smith, demonstrated the prosecutor's racial bias. Smith 
said she would be "extra cautious" in Crittenden's case, based on her white 
husband's wrongful implication in a crime wherein the suspect was black, 
according to the Ninth Circuit ruling.

The lower court found that the prosecutor should have noted Smith's statement, 
as "a key element of [the] evidence against [Crittenden] at trial was that eye 
witnesses had seen a black man matching [Crittenden's] description near the 
victims' home when the murders occurred," court records show.

Casey, on the other hand, was a "model prosecution juror according to [the 
prosecutor's] own criteria," the district court ruled, noting that she had been 
married for 42 years, lived in the same home for 17 years, went to church, and 
was concerned about drugs and street gangs.

The state appealed, but a divided panel of the Ninth Circuit upheld the lower 
court's ruling Monday.

"Although Casey opposed the death penalty, she repeatedly affirmed that her 
opposition would not prohibit her from following the court's instructions, 
applying the proper standard of proof or voting to impose the death penalty," 
Judge Raymond Fisher wrote for the majority of a divided 3-judge panel.

The San Francisco-based appeals court found that the comparison of Casey and 
Smith shows racial bias.

"Although Casey and Smith both expressed opposition to and reservations about 
imposing the death penalty, the voir dire transcripts support the court's 
conclusion that Smith was the worse juror for the prosecution," Fisher wrote. 
"Smith arguably expressed stronger opposition to the death penalty than did 
Casey - she said she found the prospect of serving on a jury in a death penalty 
case 'horrifying' - and recounted a 'horrendous' experience with law 
enforcement caused by mistaken eyewitness identification." (Emphasis in 
original.)

Judge M. Margaret McKeown dissented, holding that the prosecutor was not 
racially driven.

"In observing voir dire, the trial judge characterized potential juror 
Manzanita Casey as 'indecisive' and noted that she 'couldn't decide whether or 
not she would be able to follow the law,'" McKeown wrote. "He presciently 
observed that a '[People v.] Wheeler motion would be inappropriate.' Striking a 
juror who is a death penalty 'wobbler' is hardly a basis to impute purposeful 
discrimination to the prosecutor." (Emphasis in original.)

Mark Goldrosen, one of Crittenden's attorneys, told Courthouse News that they 
are "very pleased" with Monday's ruling.

"We have long believed that Mr. Crittenden's trial was tainted by the improper 
exclusion of the sole African-American juror in the panel, as now recognized by 
the Ninth Circuit," Goldrosen said.

The government has not returned a request for comment.

(source: Ciourthouse News)






USA:

Judge rejects death penalty expert for Montana murder case


A federal judge on Tuesday denied a request from the defendant in a 
double-murder case on Montana's Crow Indian Reservation to appoint a Colorado 
lawyer who specializes in the death penalty.

Jesus Deniz Mendoza, 18, of Worland, Wyoming, is represented by 3 attorneys 
from the federal defenders' office. U.S. District Judge Susan Watters said the 
defense failed to show the need for another attorney.

Mendoza has pleaded not guilty to the July 29 killings of Jason and Tana Shane.

Authorities say the Shanes were shot after stopping to help Mendoza along a 
rural road near Pryor, Montana. Their daughter, 26-year-old Jorah Shane, was 
wounded while trying to run away.

Mendoza, who has pleaded not guilty, could face the death penalty if convicted. 
His attorneys had asked Watters to appoint Donald Knight of Littleton, 
Colorado, to assist in the case.

Knight has represented defendants in capital cases in California, Colorado and 
Oklahoma and participated in several terrorism-related cases.

Prosecutors have asked Watters for a court order for the release of Mendoza's 
substance abuse treatment records.

"The potential role that use and/or abuse of substances played in the offenses 
is of paramount importance to a determination about the appropriate punishment 
to seek in this case," Assistant U.S. Attorney Lori Harper Suek wrote in the 
request. The records sought cover past treatment, not ongoing treatment, she 
said.

The requested order for the release of his substance abuse records would apply 
to the Highlands Behavioral Health Center in Denver; the Cowboy Youth Challenge 
in Guernsey, Wyoming; and 3 entities in Worland: the Wyoming Boys School, Cloud 
Peak Counseling Center and Washakie County School District No. 1.

Prosecutors said they tried to no avail to obtain the records directly from the 
agencies. Mendoza's attorneys have not taken a position on the request, 
according to court filings.

Mendoza, of Worland, Wyoming, faces 12 criminal charges, including 2 counts of 
1st-degree murder, carjacking, attempted murder and multiple assault and 
firearms charges, according to court records.

Watters in August ordered defense attorneys to report on the results of a 
mental health evaluation for Mendoza by Oct. 5. No report has been filed with 
the court, and defense attorneys said earlier this month that Mendoza had not 
yet undergone the evaluation.

(source: Associated Press)