[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----FLA., ARK., OHIO, USA

[Rick Halperin]

Sept. 9



FLORIDA:

State to seek death penalty for woman accused of killing her father, 6-year-old 
daughter


Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against a 25-year-old woman accused 
of killing her father and 6-year-old daughter.

Polk County Sheriff's detectives say Cheyanne Jessie stabbed the child and shot 
her father, Mark Weekly, on July 18.

Arrest reports say she left their bodies in the house until July 22, when she 
put their remains in plastic tote bins and stored them in her landlord's shed. 
He was on vacation at the time.

The Ledger of Lakeland (http://bit.ly/1Mbd2VJ ) reports that Jessie told the 
sheriff's department on Aug. 1 that her father and child were missing. 
Officials arrested Jessie after finding blood stains and knife slashes on the 
sofa and loveseat. Deputies say she told various stories about what happened to 
her father and daughter.

It's not known whether she has a lawyer to contact for comment on the case.

(source: Associated Press)






ARKANSAS----8 new executions dates set----(4 double executions set)

Hutchinson sets 8 execution dates after 10-year gap


Execution dates:

-- Oct. 21 - Bruce Earl Ward, convicted of the Aug. 11, 1989, murder of 
Rebecca Doss of Little Rock; and Don William Davis, convicted of the Oct. 12, 
1990, murder of Jane Daniel of Rogers;

-- Nov. 3 - Terrick Terrell Nooner, convicted of the March 16, 1993, murder of 
Scot Stobaugh of Little Rock; and Stacey Eugene Johnson, convicted in the April 
1, 1993, murder of Carol Heath of DeQueen;

-- Dec. 14 - Marcel Wayne Williams, convicted of the Nov. 20, 1994, murder of 
Stacy Errickson of Jacksonville; and Jack Harold Jones Jr., convicted of the 
June 6, 1995, murder of Mary Phillips of Searcy;

- Jan. 14, 2016 - Jason McGehee, convicted of the Aug. 19, 1996, murder of John 
Melbourne Jr. of Harrison; and Kenneth Williams, convicted of the Oct. 3, 1999, 
murder of Cecil Boren of Grady

Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson says the state will resume executions after a 
10-year gap starting next month with a double execution.

The Republican announced execution dates on Wednesday for 8 death-row inmates.

Arkansas hasn't executed an inmate since 2005, largely because of court 
challenges to its lethal injection law and a shortage of execution drugs.

But last week, Attorney General Leslie Rutledge sent letters to the governor 
requesting that execution dates be set. Rutledge said the inmates' appeals had 
been exhausted, and the state Department of Correction says it has enough doses 
of its lethal-injection drugs to perform the executions.

Still, a pending lawsuit is challenging a new state law that allows the 
department not to disclose how it obtains its execution drugs.

(source: arkansasonline.com)






OHIO:

Motions heard today in Robert Seman death penalty case


Judge Maureen Sweeney heard arguments today on routine motions in the death 
penalty case of Robert Seman.

Seman, 46, of Calla Road in Green, faces the death penalty if convicted of the 
deaths of Corinne Gump, 10, and her grandparents, William and Judith Schmidt, 
following a fire at their Powers away home in March, the day Seman was to go on 
trial for raping the girl.

The judge said she will rule on the motions at a late date, some of them today.

(source: vindy.com)






USA:

US files formal notice to seek death penalty in Fell retrial


Federal prosecutors have formally filed notice that they will again seek the 
death penalty against a Vermont man facing a retrial in the 2000 killing of a 
woman who was abducted when she arrived for work at a Rutland supermarket and 
later killed.

In an amended notice of intent to seek the death penalty against Donald Fell 
filed Tuesday in federal court, prosecutors say that Terry King of North 
Clarendon was killed during a kidnapping.

Fell was convicted of killing King in 2005 and sentenced to death, but his 
conviction was overturned. He is now facing a retrial in September 2016.

A hearing in Fell's case is scheduled for Friday in federal court in 
Burlington.

(source: Associated Press)