[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----PENN., VA., OKLA.

[Rick Halperin]

Sept. 16



PENNSYLVANIA:

DA to seek death penalty against ex-officer charged in death


Prosecutors plan to seek the death penalty in the case of a former suburban 
Philadelphia police officer accused of killing his ex-girlfriend and wounding 
her daughter.

32-year-old Stephen Rozniakowski of Norwood is charged in Delaware County with 
criminal homicide murder, attempted murder and aggravated assault.

District Attorney Jack Whelan said Tuesday he would seek capital punishment if 
Rozniakowski is convicted of 1st-degree murder, citing a protection from abuse 
order, risk to another person and another felony at the time of the slaying.

Authorities alleged that the part-time Colwyn officer killed Valerie Morrow and 
shot her daughter in December in Glenolden before he was wounded by the 
victim's husband, a part-time Morton officer.

Whelan also said he believed the state Supreme Court would nullify the 
governor's moratorium on the death penalty.

(source: Associated Press)






VIRGINIA:

Jesse Matthew Charged in Connection to Death of Morgan Harrington


The man accused of capital murder in the death of Hannah Graham is now charged 
with the murder of Morgan Harrington.

An Albemarle County grand jury indicted Jesse Matthew last Friday on 1st-degree 
murder and abduction with intent to defile charges in connection with the death 
of Morgan Harrington.

Harrington left a Metallica concert at John Paul Jones Arena in Charlottesville 
back in October 2009 never to be seen again. Her remains were found months 
later on a southern Albemarle County farm. Matthew had been forensically linked 
to the case during 2 other investigations.

"After a series of discussions within the office and with the various law 
enforcement agencies involved with this, we decided a month or so ago that it 
was time to proceed and ask a grand jury what they thought," said Albemarle 
County Commonwealth's Attorney Denise Lunsford. "Really it was just a matter of 
looking at what we had over the course of the years, making a determination if 
now is the appropriate time, whether we should wait any longer for any reason."

Regarding the charges, Morgan Harrington's mother Gil said "it doesn't bring 
closure but there's some satisfaction. We have known in our hearts and believed 
very strongly that Mr. Matthew was responsible. It was very important and I 
don't know why it was so important for Dan, me, our son Alex to have some 
acknowledgment of the fact that Morgan's life was taken. She was robbed from 
us."

A search warrant NBC29 obtained in November says Morgan's t-shirt had multiple 
DNA stains on it that matched Matthew's DNA.

Matthew is accused of abducting University of Virginia student Hannah Graham 
from Charlottesville's Downtown Mall in September 2014 and killing her. Her 
body was found in a wooded area off of Old Lynchburg Road in southern Albemarle 
County. Matthew is facing a capital murder charge in her death, meaning he 
could face the death penalty.

Legal analyst Lloyd Snook says investigating the Graham case along with a 3rd 
case where Matthew attacked a woman in Fairfax likely helped the Harrington 
case.

"I'm guessing that they found some other things they've found in their other 
investigations of Jesse Matthew that they thought might add a little to this 
case. But sometimes cases get better but after a while if you don't get more 
evidence in, it's time to move," he said.

Matthew's trial in the Graham case is set for next summer. He's set to be 
sentenced for the Fairfax case next month.

He is due in court in connection with the Harrington case on Wednesday, Sept. 
16.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Press Release from Albemarle County Commonwealth's Attorney:

On September 11, 2015, an Albemarle County Grand Jury returned 2 Indictments 
against Jesse Leroy Matthew, Jr. in connection with the October 17, 2009 
disappearance and death of Morgan Dana Harrington. Matthew was charged with 
First Degree Murder of Morgan Harrington and Abduction with the Intent to 
Defile. The maximum penalty for each offense is life in prison.

These Indictments were received by the Court on September 15, 2015. An 
indictment is a charge and not evidence of guilt. A defendant is presumed 
innocent and entitled to a fair trial with the burden on the Commonwealth to 
prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

Matthew was served with the Indictments on September 15, 2015. His 1st 
appearance before the Albemarle County Circuit Court will take place at 12:45 
p.m. on September 16, 2015. The indictments result from the dedicated 
investigative efforts over the past 6 years by the Virginia State Police, 
Albemarle County Police, Charlottesville Police, University of Virginia Police, 
and the FBI.

There will be no press conference. The Virginia State Bar's Rules of 
Professional Conduct for Attorneys Rule 3:6 contains prohibitions on 
extrajudicial statements that may interfere with a fair trial. The Commonwealth 
intends to strictly adhere to this Rule and, accordingly, will not comment on 
the evidence, the penalty which may be sought, trial strategy or work product 
prior to trial.

(source: WVIR news)






OKLAHOMA----stay of impending execution

Oklahoma Court Halts Execution Of Richard Glossip Amidst Claims He's Innocent


The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals on Wednesday halted the scheduled 
execution of Richard Glossip hours before he was set to die by lethal injection 
for the 1997 murder of his former boss.

Glossip has long maintained his innocence. His attorneys asked the court to 
stay the execution Tuesday and to grant Glossip a hearing for new evidence they 
say will prove his innocence.

The court on Wednesday granted an emergency stay of execution for 2 weeks to 
give "fair consideration" to the new evidence his lawyers have presented.

His execution has been reset for Sept. 30 pending the results of the hearing 
and subsequent court motions.

Glossip was set to be put to death at 4 p.m. ET for the murder of Barry Van 
Treese, the owner of a motel at which he worked. Van Treese was found beaten to 
death with a baseball bat in a room of the Best Budget Inn in Oklahoma City.

Justin Sneed, a maintenance worker at the motel, confessed to killing Van 
Treese, but under police interrogation said that Glossip offered him money to 
carry out the murder.

In exchange for testifying against Glossip, Sneed is serving life in prison, 
while Glossip was sentenced to death for his role as the mastermind of the 
murder.

Glossip, 52, has maintained his innocence for more than 17 years on death row.

Thousands of people, led by actress Susan Sarandon and renowned anti-death 
penalty advocate Sister Helen Prejean, have signed petitions to stop Glossip 
from being executed.

The case has received more media attention than any of the other 20 executions 
in the United States this year.

Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin who on Tuesday rejected Glossip's request for a 
60-day stay of execution, responded to the court's decision saying, "My office 
will respect whatever decision the court makes."

In a statement, Attorney General Scott Pruitt said he was confident that the 
Court of Criminal Appeals "will conclude there is nothing worthy" in its review 
of the filings to overturn Glossip's guilty verdict.

"The family of Barry Van Treese has waited 18 agonizing years for justice to be 
realized for his brutal death," Pruitt said.

Oklahoma uses midazolam, a controversial drug that is at the center of 
problematic executions, as part of its 3-drug lethal injection protocol. Unless 
the court intervenes, Glossip will be the 1st person to be executed since the 
significant Supreme Court decision in June which allowed the use of midazolam 
in executions.

His attorneys have argued that Glossip was convicted and sentenced based solely 
on Sneed's confession and testimony, both of which they say are unreliable. 
There was also no forensic or physical evidence tying Glossip to the murder.

His attorneys asked Fallin to grant a 60-day reprieve on the basis of 
"compelling new evidence of innocence." This included an expert's report which 
said that transcripts and tapes of Sneed's police interrogation showed the 
police used "personal and situational factors" to obtain false confessions from 
Sneed.

It also included an affidavit from a man who claimed to have overheard Sneed in 
prison saying that he intentionally set Glossip up. His attorneys said the 
evidence also points to how Sneed was a meth addict who frequently stole from 
cars and rooms at the motel in order to support his drug addiction.

Last year, Sneed's daughter wrote a letter to the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole 
Board requesting clemency for Glossip, stating that she "strongly believed is 
an innocent man sitting on death row" and that her father had talked to her 
about recanting his original testimony.

In her statement denying a temporary reprieve for Glossip, Gov. Fallin said the 
"new evidence" presented to her did not provide "credible evidence of Richard 
Glossip's innocence."

Describing Glossip's attorneys claims of having new evidece as "part of a 
larger publicity campaign opposing the death penalty," Fallin said she saw "no 
reason to cast doubt on the guilty verdict reached by the jury or to delay 
Glossip's sentence of death."

In 2001, a court granted Glossip a new trial because of ineffective counsel and 
noted there was no forensic evidence to implicate him in the crime and "no 
compelling evidence" to corroborate Sneed's testimony against him.

However, in the 2004 re-trial, Glossip was again convicted and sentenced to 
death.

The Supreme Court postponed Glossip's execution, originally scheduled for Jan. 
29, until a legal challenge - brought by Glossip and other death row inmates - 
against Oklahoma's use of a controversial lethal injection drug was resolved.

In June, the Supreme Court ruled that the drug - midazolam - could be used in 
executions, allowing Oklahoma to reschedule Glossip's execution for Sept. 16.

In August, the Supreme Court rejected Glossip's request for a new hearing in 
the case concerning the lethal injection drug.

Glossip's case has received widespread attention primarily due to the support 
of several high-profile advocates against the death penalty.

On an Aug 31. episode of Dr. Phil - dedicated almost entirely to Glossip's case 
- a visibly emotional Susan Sarandon publicly appealed to Fallin to stop his 
execution.

"I believe the evidence shows Richard deserves a chance for this information to 
finally be heard by people," the actress said.

Sister Helen Prejean, whom Sarandon portrayed in Dead Man Walking, told 
BuzzFeed News that she was Glossip's "spiritual adviser" and was "personally 
summoned by him."

"This guy is so innocent," Prejean said.

Nearly 300,000 people have signed petitions asking Fallin to stop the 
execution.

Among his other supporters are British billionaire Richard Branson, as well as 
Oklahoma Sen. Tom Coburn and the Innocence Project???s Barry Scheck, who wrote 
a letter to Fallin asking her not to make "a deadly mistake."

(source: buzzfeed.com)

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

Oklahoma executions: A look at the history of the death penalty in the Sooner 
state


Should Richard Glossip's execution be carried out as scheduled, the 52-year-old 
will become the state's 196th inmate to be put to death. Furthermore, when 2015 
comes to a close two more inmates will bring that number to 198 inmates put to 
death by the state.

Oklahoma carried out its 1st execution in 1915 when Henry Bookman, 28, was 
executed by electrocution. Arthur Gooch holds the distinction as the lone death 
row inmate to be hanged. Gooch was a federal prisoner - convicted of kidnapping 
- who spent 318 days in Department of Corrections custody before he was 
executed on June 19, 1936.

This is a look inside the numbers that define our state's history of capital 
punishment.

AGE

18 - Youngest

74 - Oldest

38 - Average age

COUNT BY RACE

1 - Asian (0.5 %)

2 - Other (1 %)

3 - Hispanic (1.5 %)

6 - Indian (3.1 %)

61- Black (31.3 %)

122 - White (62.6 %)

COUNT BY GENDER

3 - Female (1.5 %)

192 - Male (98.5 %)

COUNT BY METHOD

1 - Hanging (0.5 %)

82 - Electrocution (42.1 %)

112 - Lethal Injection (57.4 %)

DAYS ON DEATH ROW

30 - Fewest number of days

2,784 - Average number of days

9,207 - Most number of days

4,529 - Average number of days once the Death Penalty was reinstated in 1990.

MORE HISTORY

The last execution by electrocution happened in 1966.

The 1st execution by lethal injection in Oklahoma occurred on September 10, 
1990, when Charles Troy Coleman, convicted in 1979 of Murder 1st Degree in 
Muskogee County, was executed.

Lois Nadean Smith is the most recent female to be executed. Smith died by 
lethal injection on Dec. 4, 2001. In fact, the executions of the state's 3 
females were all carried out in 2001.

The busiest year for executions was 2001. 18 inmates were put to death that 
year.

The state went 24 years without an execution (1966-1990).

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Oklahoma's Death Penalty Law that required 
executions to be carried out by electrocution to be unconstitutional in 1972. 5 
years later, Oklahoma's current method of execution, lethal injection, was 
enacted into law.

Benjamin Cole and John Grant are the next inmates in line for execution. Cole 
is scheduled for Oct. 7, 2015. Grant will be executed 21 days later.

(source: KJRH news)