[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----MO., KAN., OKLA., NEB., COLO., USA

[Rick Halperin]

Sept. 9



MISSOURI:

Why Missouri is an Outlier in Execution Trends


As national execution numbers drop to historic lows and a growing number of 
states halt executions or repeal the death penalty altogether, Missouri has 
recently increased the number of executions it is carrying out and overtaken 
Texas for the highest per-capita execution rate. Missouri and Texas have 
carried out all of the last 15 executions in the U.S. and 80% of executions 
through September 1 of this year. A report by The Marshall Project explores why 
Missouri is bucking national trends, highlighting the availability of execution 
drugs, Missouri's political climate, and the lack of adequate defense 
resources. While shortages of lethal injection drugs have slowed executions in 
many states, Missouri has managed to stockpile pentobarbitral for use in 
executions. Because of state secrecy laws, the source of the drug is unknown, 
and state officials will not confirm whether the drug is produced by a 
compounding pharmacy or obtained from another source, such as a veterinary 
supplier or overseas manufacturer. The governor and attorney general of 
Missouri have pushed to move executions forward, using the death penalty to 
establish "tough-on-crime" credentials as Democrats in a politically 
conservative state. Courts have also contributed to the unusual situation in 
Missouri. The state Supreme Court, which sets execution dates, scheduled one 
execution per month to make up for holds due to drug shortages. Finally, 
underfunding and heavy caseloads have created what defense attorneys are 
calling a "crisis" in capital representation. Missouri was ranked 49th of the 
50 states in per-capita spending on indigent defense in 2009. In March, the 
American Bar Association Death Penalty Assessment Team told the Missouri 
Supreme Court, "The current pace of executions is preventing counsel for the 
condemned from performing competently."

Missouri has been the subject of charges of improprieties in obtaining 
execution drugs, including making secret cash payments for execution drugs and 
violating federal law by allegedly obtaining pentobarbital from a compounding 
pharmacy without a valid prescription. The American Bar Association assessment 
completed in 2012 reported numerous failings in the state's administration of 
the death penalty.

(source: Death Penalty Information Center)






KANSAS----new death sentence

Jury recommends death penalty for man who killed 3 at Jewish sites


A jury recommended the death penalty Tuesday for a white supremacist who 
fatally shot 3 people at Jewish sites in Kansas last year, just hours after the 
man told jurors he didn't care what sentence was handed down.

The same jury convicted 74-year-old Frazier Glenn Miller Jr. last week of 
capital murder for the April 2014 shootings. The judge overseeing the trial 
will now decide whether to follow the jury's sentencing recommendation.

Johnson County District Attorney Steve Howe had urged the jury to recommend a 
death sentence earlier Tuesday during closing arguments in the trial's penalty 
phase. He showed jurors one of the shotguns used in the shootings, saying 
Miller - who repeatedly admitted to the killings - pointed the gun at one of 
the victims, 53-year-old Terri LaManno, but the weapon didn't fire.

Howe then grabbed another of Miller's guns to show the jury, saying LaManno 
"begged for her life" before Miller shot her.

"There's no doubt she was terrified. She froze. ... And his response was to 
brutally kill her," Howe said. "The defendant's actions are clearly the type of 
case the death penalty was made for."

Miller also killed 69-year-old William Corporon, and Corporon's 14-year-old 
grandson, Reat Griffin Underwood, at the Jewish Community Center in Overland 
Park. He shot LaManno later that day at the nearby Village Shalom retirement 
center.

In a rambling, hour-long closing argument earlier Tuesday, Miller touched on 
the media, white supremacism and his health before telling jurors he didn't 
care what sentence they handed down.

"Frankly my dears, I don't give a damn," he said. Miller later raised his right 
arm in the Nazi salute, as he did after jurors convicted him.

Miller, who represented himself at the trial, has said he is suffering from 
chronic emphysema and wanted to kill Jewish people before he died. None of the 
victims was Jewish.

Miller was removed from the courtroom after the verdict was read. His 
sentencing is scheduled for Nov. 10.

Miller, also known as Frazier Glenn Cross Jr., is a Vietnam War veteran who 
founded the Carolina Knights of the Ku Klux Klan in his native North Carolina 
and later the White Patriot Party. He also ran for the U.S. House in 2006 and 
the U.S. Senate in 2010 in Missouri, each time espousing a white-power 
platform.

Among Miller's witnesses, was his 39-year-old son, Frazier Glenn Miller III, 
who testified he doesn't know where his father learned about "hating Jews and 
about hating other races."

If the judge agrees to a death sentence, it's unclear if the punishment would 
be carried out. A doctor testified during the trial that Miller likely had 5 to 
6 years to live, and Kansas has not executed a death row inmate in decades.

State Department of Corrections spokesman Adam Pfannenstiel said earlier 
Tuesday that the state doesn't currently have the drugs on hand to perform a 
lethal injection. "It's not something we've had to concern ourselves with," he 
said.

(source: Associated Press)






OKLAHOMA----impending execution

Killing despite reasonable doubt


The death penalty is inhuman and barbaric and should have no place in any 
society. Even those who may disagree with this fundamental moral principle 
cannot deny that capital punishment around the world is plagued by such massive 
problems that leave no other conclusion but to call for its universal 
abolition.

In the US, 155 people on death row have been exonerated of their crimes since 
1976, suggesting that many more innocent people have been sentenced to die and, 
in some cases, been executed. Then there is the inherent racial injustice. As 
study after study has shown, a black person accused of killing a white person 
is more likely to receive the death penalty than the white killer of a black 
person. Race and economic status, essentially the financial means to afford 
adequate legal representation, seem to be key factors in the sentence received. 
As the adage goes, "if you don???t have the capital, you will get the 
punishment."

In just over a week's time, the State of Oklahoma plans to execute Richard 
Glossip, a man who was convicted 17 years ago for allegedly hiring another man 
to kill his employer. Following incriminating testimony from the man who 
actually swung the baseball bat that killed Barry Van Treese, Glossip was 
sentenced to die by lethal injection in Oklahoma's death chamber. In a chilling 
twist, Oklahoma plans to use the same lethal injection protocol to execute 
Glossip that was used in the botched execution of Clayton Lockett last year. 
Lockett's execution went so badly wrong that the Supreme Court took up the 
matter in Glossip v Gross. The case failed, and Glossip moved one step closer 
to the gurney.

Looking at the details of the case, there are plenty of reasons to believe that 
Glossip did not commit the crimes he was accused of. The conviction was based 
entirely on the killer's testimony, which changed considerably over time. There 
is no physical evidence linking Glossip to the crime, and also no motive. But 
nonetheless, this total lack of evidence has not swayed state and federal 
courts to reconsider Mr Glossip's execution and grant the reprieve he needs now 
to make his case.

As in many questionable cases before, from Troy Davis in Georgia to Cameron 
Todd Willingham in Texas, the system is moving mercilessly towards the 
scheduled death date. After his appeals have been exhausted, all of Glossip's 
hopes now rest with Governor Mary Fallin, who has the executive power to issue 
a stay of his execution.

Thankfully, Mr. Glossip's case has received vocal support, most notably from 
Susan Sarandon, Sister Helen Prejean and Dr. Phil McGraw - who have started a 
petition to grant him a stay of execution.

I have decided to join their call for reprieve, convinced that it cannot be the 
will of the good people of Oklahoma to kill a man when so much reasonable doubt 
has been cast on his guilt. 10 death row prisoners have been exonerated in 
Oklahoma since 1976, 4 of them based on findings of false testimony.

I hope Governor Fallin will side with those who argue that Richard Glossip has 
not had a fair chance to make his case. Giving him another opportunity to prove 
his innocence is not being weak on crime, it's being strong on justice.

(source: Richard Branson, virgin.com)






NEBRASKA:

Workers in 93 counties sifting through death penalty petition signatures


Thousands of signatures filled stacks of boxes at the state's capital last 
month, and now it's time to verify and count them.

Busy days are ahead at the Douglas County Election Commission. Those pages of 
signatures arrived last week, starting a 40-day race with the clock to get them 
all counted.

Nearly 3 months of work was put in by death penalty supporters, canvasing the 
state and gathering signatures to put Nebraska's death penalty on the ballot. 
Election commissioners in all 93 counties are counting and verifying all of the 
signatures.

"So we enter from the petition pages the voters' information, which sometimes 
can be challenging, because we know people are signing those while they are 
standing outside a grocery store. And hand writing is always really challenging 
to read," Douglas County election commission public relations coordinator 
Valerie Stoj said.

Employees put those names into a statewide system, then compare the signatures 
on the petition with the saved signature from past voter registration.

If everything adds up, the vote is added to the total. If there's evidence of 
voter fraud or a duplicate signature is found, the vote is thrown out.

The Douglas County Election Commission is tasked with 39,000 signatures, now 
causing some unexpected costs for the county.

"It is a considerable undertaking," Stoj said. "We have almost all of our 
full-time staff working on it. We've hired a team of temporary staff to come in 
and help us with that project. While we'll work as hard as we can, it will 
probably take us nearly all of (the 40 days)."

Douglas County has hired 12 temporary employees to help. KETV NewsWatch 7 was 
told that the final cost won't be known until the job is done.

In Lancaster County, with more than 23,000 signatures, election commissioner 
David Shively said they haven't hired anyone, but it will likely come down to 
the last of the 40 days.

"We anticipate we'll probably be pretty close to that, hopefully we'll be done 
a day or 2 early," Shively said. "We're at a little bit of a slow time in our 
processes here and so permanent staff are the ones that are doing this."

Sarpy County will count more than 16,000 signatures. They have not hired extra 
help at this time.

Although it's early in the process, neither Douglas nor Lancaster County is 
reporting large numbers of invalid signatures. 57,000 valid signatures would 
place the law on the ballot; 115,000 would suspend the law before the vote 
would even happen. Organizers of the petition drive say they collected more 
than 166,000 signatures.

(source: KETV news)






COLORADO:

Death penalty conviction for Sir Mario Owens now in limbo


Sir Mario Owens' fate on death row could be changing.

Owens was convicted in 2008 of double murder to keep a witness from testifying 
against him, prosecutors said. Javad Marshall Fields was gunned down in Aurora 
back in June of 2005 along with his fiancee Vivian Wolfe. Fields was going to 
testify in another murder.

Now a judge could throw out the conviction, the death sentence or both because 
of new information gathered after the case - and a decision could come at any 
time. This move is the latest of several legal challenges.

Owens' attorneys said their client's case was far from fair. They are accusing 
prosecutors of giving the key witness a car after the trial -- yet not telling 
the defense team of the promise.

Another informant is accused of receiving money for information -- an exchange 
that was never disclosed to the defense team -- and even a $500 dollar 
Christmas gift.

"There were un-level playing fields and this is why it's such a big deal," said 
legal analyst David Beller. Beller said the public could be forced to spend 
millions of dollars on a new trial if that is what the judge decides.

"It would be a message to the Colorado public that perhaps our court process 
is, in fact, unfair in certain circumstances," he said.

This looming decision comes at a critical time in Colorado as the Governor's 
moratorium on the death penalty is still in place.

Juries have also rejected the death penalty as punishment in the Aurora theater 
shooting trial and the Fero's bar murders.

"The death penalty in Colorado very much relies on the idea that it's a fair 
process and that the court is fair to the defense," said Beller.

Fields is the son of Colorado state representative Rhonda Fields. Fields feels 
the challenge is a desperate move, telling 7NEWS she was in court during the 
trial and describes it as ethical.

(source: thedenverchannel.com)

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

Governor Won't Push To Abolish Colorado's Death Penalty


Gov. John Hickenlooper opposes the death penalty and has put one execution on 
hold indefinitely. But even despite recent life sentences in 2 high profile 
cases, including the Aurora theater shooter case, now is not the right time to 
try to force changes to Colorado's capital punishment law, Hickenlooper told 
Colorado Matters host Ryan Warner on Tuesday.

Both cases raised questions about the future of the death penalty.

"I think the verdicts in those 2 cases... do say something that the 
conversation [about the future of the death penalty] is taking place... but the 
conversation hasn't come to a head yet," he said.

"I think [it] has to simmer a little more before we say, 'Now's the time where 
we're going to have a commission and we want people to make a decision,'" he 
added.

The governor says it's possible that Colorado's death penalty statutes won't 
change during his tenure in office: "I think it would be better for Colorado, 
obviously, if [the death penalty were abolished before I leave office], but I 
don't think you can put a strict timeline on these things. It might take 
decades more. It's hard to predict."

(source: cpr.org)






USA:

Juror testifies in hearing regarding misconduct in Rodriguez death penalty 
appeal


All they asked her was to spell her name aloud, and Paulette Cotney burst into 
tears.

Unexpected as it was, the feeling might have been shared by many in that 
courtroom, where so many of the same people had sat 9 years before.

Cotney and 11 other men and women had sweated through the 6-week trial that 
summer of 2006, agonizing over the dark and ugly details of Dru Sjodin's bloody 
kidnapping, rape and murder, agonizing still more over their verdict.

"We talked about those final moments," said Cotney's fellow juror, Rebecca 
Brandt Vettel, from the witness stand in U.S. District Court on Tuesday. "I 
can't imagine the fear."

After handing in their verdict, death by lethal injection for Alfonso Rodriguez 
Jr., it was clear neither Brandt nor Cotney had ever expected to be there 
again.

But both were sworn in as the 1st of a week's worth of witnesses by defense 
attorneys for Rodriguez, who are alleging juror misconduct in the case.

The specifics of what that misconduct construed of remained murky until 
Vettel's testimony late Tuesday, thanks to dueling sealed motions in the case.

On direct examination, defense attorney Andrew Mohring established that Vettel 
had checked "no" instead of "yes" on juror questionnaire items that would have 
otherwise revealed Vettel had survived 2 abusive marriages, and been the victim 
of a another, unrelated, attempted assault, 1 that had gone unreported.

During jury selection, Vettel had also neglected to report she'd been involved 
in a handful of lawsuits and had even run afoul of the law herself, having been 
pulled over for driving without insurance on more than one occasion, Mohring 
pointed out.

Mohring asked if she'd done so because she'd otherwise likely have been booted 
out of the jury pool, something Vettel denied.

"I didn't purposely withhold it," she testified. "Crime was a more severe thing 
to me, I guess."

Vettel was also questioned closely about statements she'd made publicly, 
decrying the lengthy appeals process that withheld closure from both Sjodin's 
and Rodriguez's families.

Cotney took the stand to say she'd had misgivings from the beginning about the 
appeals process in the case.

She admitted she couldn't accept Judge Ralph Erickson's explanation in 2006 
that even if they gave Rodriguez life without parole, he would never be freed 
on appeal years later.

It was important to her that he never be released to commit another crime, 
Cotney testified, and the death penalty would be one way to ensure that.

"I've heard of people higher up, turning over decisions in courts. People being 
released from jail when they shouldn't be," she said.

Her testimony is set to resume today.

(source: Grand Forks Herald)