[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----CONN., PENN., VA., GA., FLA., LA.

[Rick Halperin]

Sept. 20



CONNECTICUT:

Despite ruling abolishing the death penalty, inmates still being housed on 
death row


Former death-row inmates in Connecticut may soon be living under less 
restrictive prison conditions than other inmates convicted of similar crimes, 
legal experts say.

Connecticut's Supreme Court last month declared capital punishment 
unconstitutional in the state, striking down part of a 2012 law that had 
allowed the death penalty only for those already facing execution.

That statute replaced what had been known as "capital felony" with a new crime, 
"murder with special circumstances." Under the new law, anyone who is convicted 
of what would have previously been a death-penalty eligible crime is now 
sentenced to life in prison under conditions mimicking death row.

That means being held in single cell for 22 hours a day, being escorted by at 
least one staff member and placed in restraints when moving outside that cell. 
Of the 2 hours considered "recreation," 1 would typically be spent indoors, in 
an area that houses a law library and a phone. The other would be spent alone 
in a cage outside in a courtyard. There would be no physical contact with other 
inmates.

Ironically, the 11 inmates currently housed on death row may soon be escaping 
those conditions.

Those inmates must now be re-sentenced to life without parole under the old 
capital felony statue, which existed when they were convicted, their attorneys 
say.

Though the Correction Department has leeway in the conditions imposed on 
individual inmates, someone sentenced to life without parole under the old 
statute was typically placed in the general population and allowed to be out of 
a cell six to seven hours a day with other inmates. They also have access to 
the prison commissary and gym.

"At some point, the death-row inmates are going to be let into general 
population," said attorney Mark Rademacher, who successfully argued for the 
abolishment of capital punishment as the attorney for Eduardo Santiago and 
currently represents death-row inmate Russell Peeler Jr. "I don't see how the 
state could oppose that."

So far, none of the death-row inmates has been moved, said Department of 
Correction spokeswoman Karen Martucci.

"Nothing has changed with the management of the death-row population since 
their sentence has not been legally changed by a court," she wrote in an email 
to The Associated Press. "I really couldn't predict when any court action will 
take place."

The process has been delayed, in part, because prosecutors have asked the court 
to reconsider the August ruling that declared capital punishment 
unconstitutional.

7 The chief state's attorney's office, citing that pending litigation, declined 
to comment for this story.

Michael Courtney, who heads the capital defense unit for the state's Office of 
the Public Defender, said the high court typically does not grant motions to 
reconsider, but the legal maneuver could lead to further delays in abolishing 
death row.

"I guess (prosecutors) feel like they have to keep swinging," he said. "They 
have the procedural mechanism to delay this, and they have used it."

The American Civil Liberties Union of Connecticut is also monitoring the 
proceedings.

ACLU attorney David McGuire said the Correction Department already has the 
authority to decide where the former death-row inmates belong based on factors 
such as their age, mental health, disciplinary record while in prison and the 
security risk they present.

It is possible that some will remain at the Northern Correctional Institution 
under the state's tightest security, known as level five, while others are sent 
to other prisons as level four inmates or even to medical units, he said.

"All of those are very restrictive environments," he said. "These are not 
luxurious settings."

(source: Associated Press)






PENNSYLVANIA:

Delaware County DA Seeking Death Penalty Despite Pennsylvania's Moratorium


This past week, Delaware County's District Attorney vowed to seek the death 
penalty against a former police officer charged with the murder of his 
ex-girlfriend. This, despite the moratorium on capital punishment in 
Pennsylvania, ordered by Governor Wolf.

It's the subject of a battle in the state's highest court.

"In certain cases, justice demands the consideration of death."

Such as the case against former Colwyn cop Stephen Rozniakowski, says Delaware 
County DA Jack Whelan.

He argues there are 4 aggravating factors that warrant the defendant's 
execution, including that the victim had taken out a protection from abuse 
order against the man just hours before she was killed.

"And although we highly respect the office of the governor and we highly 
respect the opinion of the sitting Governor Wolf, what he's done is 
unconstitutional." says Whelan.

Wolf's lawyers say otherwise: that the state constitution gives him 
"unconditional power" to grant reprieves to death-row inmates. The governor 
says he won't stop doing so until a panel of lawmakers finishes a study on 
capital punishment in the commonwealth.

His stance is being challenged in separate cases in the state Supreme Court by 
Philadelphia DA Seth Williams and Attorney General Kathleen Kane.

182 people sit on death row in Pennsylvania. Three have been executed in the 
nearly 4 decades since the penalty was made legal; each had given up their 
appeals.

(source: CBS news)

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

Executions still scheduled, but moratorium likely to stay


Despite the legal and political uproar over Gov. Tom Wolf's 7-month-old 
moratorium on executions, change comes slowly on Pennsylvania's death row.

Executions continue to be scheduled at a normal pace as inmates become eligible 
to be put to death by lethal injection. Wolf has not signed any death warrants, 
but Corrections Secretary John Wetzel has fulfilled his legal duty to set 
execution dates when the governor does not act.

Of the 15 executions slated to occur after Wolf took office in January, Wolf 
has blocked three by granting temporary reprieves and judges have issued stays 
for 11 other condemned prisoners. Barring a stay, the governor is likely to 
issue a reprieve for Northampton County mass killer Michael Ballard, whose Oct. 
19 execution is the only one currently pending.

Since the death penalty was restored in 1976, only 3 people have been executed 
in Pennsylvania, the most recent in 1999. The state has the nation's 
5th-largest death row, according to the Washington-based Death Penalty 
Information Center, with 182 inmates as of Sept. 1.

Even if a condemned prisoner gave up all his appeal rights and the governor 
stopped issuing reprieves, an execution could not go forward because the prison 
system lacks the mixture of drugs required by law.

"We're in the process of legally obtaining them and we just haven't been 
successful," said Corrections Department spokeswoman Sue McNaughton.

Wolf announced in February he would use his constitutional authority to grant 
reprieves to block any executions until a long-overdue legislative study of 
capital punishment in the state is completed. He said the system "is riddled 
with flaws, making it error prone, expensive and anything but infallible."

"This is going to be a landmark study," said state Sen. Stewart Greenleaf, who 
chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee and the bipartisan 4-senator task force 
that will make recommendations. "If you want to take someone'a life, you better 
make sure that they're guilty."

Wolf expressed support for a death penalty moratorium during his political 
campaign, joining fellow Democratic governors in Colorado, Oregon and 
Washington who took similar steps in recent years.

But prosecutors and law enforcement groups roundly objected, branding the 
governor???s moratorium as an unconstitutional misuse of authority. A legal 
challenge filed by the Philadelphia district attorney's office sparked a lively 
discussion at a state Supreme Court hearing earlier this month.

H. Geoffrey Moulton Jr., the governor's lead attorney in the case, acknowledged 
that Wolf lacks the power to unilaterally suspend the death penalty in 
Pennsylvania. But unlike pardons and commutations, which require approval of 
the state Pardons Board, the governor has broad authority to grant reprieves 
for indefinite periods during his tenure without having to explain his reasons, 
Moulton said.

Wolf's moratorium-by-reprieve policy appears likely to extend into 2016, 
barring a negative ruling from the courts. The Senate-ordered study was 
originally due in December 2013.

"It looks like it's going to be next year," said Greenleaf, R-Montgomery.

The report from the Pennsylvania Task Force and Advisory Committee on Capital 
Punishment will examine concerns that include its cost, fairness, the impact on 
victims??? families, the role of mental illness, the value of DNA testing and 
the quality of legal advice available to defendants.

The Joint State Government Commission, a legislative research agency overseeing 
the project, is collaborating with Penn State???s Center for Justice Research 
and the state courts??? Interbranch Commission on Gender, Racial and Ethnic 
Fairness.

(source: cumberlink.com)

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

Governor hopes moratorium will lead to death-penalty reforms


Despite the legal and political uproar over Gov. Tom Wolf's 7-month-old 
moratorium on executions, change comes slowly on Pennsylvania's death row.

Executions continue to be scheduled at a normal pace as inmates become eligible 
to be put to death by lethal injection. Wolf has not signed any death warrants, 
but Corrections Secretary John Wetzel has fulfilled his legal duty to set 
execution dates when the governor does not act.

Of the 15 executions slated to occur after Wolf took office in January, Wolf 
has blocked three by granting temporary reprieves and judges have issued stays 
for 11 other condemned prisoners. Barring a stay, the governor is likely to 
issue a reprieve for Northampton County mass killer Michael Ballard, whose Oct. 
19 execution is the only one currently pending.

Since the death penalty was restored in 1976, only 3 people have been executed 
in Pennsylvania, the most recent in 1999. The state has the nation's 
5th-largest death row, according to the Washington-based Death Penalty 
Information Center, with 182 inmates as of Sept. 1.

Even if a condemned prisoner gave up all his appeal rights and the governor 
stopped issuing reprieves, an execution could not go forward because the prison 
system lacks the mixture of drugs required by law.

"We're in the process of legally obtaining them and we just haven't been 
successful," said Corrections Department spokeswoman Sue McNaughton.

Wolf announced in February he would use his constitutional authority to grant 
reprieves to block any executions until a long-overdue legislative study of 
capital punishment in the state is completed. He said the system "is riddled 
with flaws, making it error prone, expensive and anything but infallible."

"This is going to be a landmark study," said state Sen. Stewart Greenleaf, who 
chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee and the bipartisan four-senator task 
force that will make recommendations. "If you want to take someone's life, you 
better make sure that they're guilty."

Wolf expressed support for a death penalty moratorium during his political 
campaign, joining fellow Democratic governors in Colorado, Oregon and 
Washington who took similar steps in recent years.

But prosecutors and law enforcement groups roundly objected, branding the 
governor's moratorium as an unconstitutional misuse of authority. A legal 
challenge filed by the Philadelphia district attorney's office sparked a lively 
discussion at a state Supreme Court hearing earlier this month.

H. Geoffrey Moulton Jr., the governor's lead attorney in the case, acknowledged 
that Wolf lacks the power to unilaterally suspend the death penalty in 
Pennsylvania. But unlike pardons and commutations, which require approval of 
the state Pardons Board, the governor has broad authority to grant reprieves 
for indefinite periods during his tenure without having to explain his reasons, 
Moulton said.

Wolf's moratorium-by-reprieve policy appears likely to extend into 2016, 
barring a negative ruling from the courts. The Senate-ordered study was 
originally due in December 2013.

"It looks like it's going to be next year," said Greenleaf, R-Montgomery.

The report from the Pennsylvania Task Force and Advisory Committee on Capital 
Punishment will examine concerns that include its cost, fairness, the impact on 
victims' families, the role of mental illness, the value of DNA testing and the 
quality of legal advice available to defendants.

The Joint State Government Commission, a legislative research agency overseeing 
the project, is collaborating with Penn State's Center for Justice Research and 
the state courts' Interbranch Commission on Gender, Racial and Ethnic Fairness.

(source: Associated Press)






VIRGINIA:

High court: Some info on executions can be kept secret


Some information used to guide executions in Virginia does not have to be 
released to the public, the state Supreme Court ruled last week.

The decision could have far-reaching ramifications for transparency in the 
commonwealth.

The court ruled that manuals used to outline execution procedures, including 
sensitive security materials, are exempt from Freedom of Information Act 
requests and do not have to be redacted and partially released.

The decision reverses an opinion by then-Fairfax County Circuit Judge Jane 
Roush, who ordered last year the release of the information, including 
execution manuals and a schematic of the chamber in which executions are 
carried out. Death penalty opponents have been trying for years to obtain 
details of the state's lethal injection procedures, amid national concern over 
the kinds of drugs being used.

The court found that the security concerns raised by the state are legitimate, 
and that Virginia law regarding security exemptions says nothing about a 
requirement to redact such documents.

"We give deference to the expert opinions of correctional officials charged 
with maintaining the safety and security of their employees, the inmates, and 
the public at large," Justice Cleo Powell wrote for the majority.

The circuit court was ordered to reconsider the release of several other 
documents involving prison floor plans and the wiring and operation of the 
electric chair.

Lawyers for the state had argued that specifics regarding the transfer of 
prisoners to the execution chamber, floor plans could be exploited by prisoners 
or protesters.

(source: Washington Post)






GEORGIA----impending female execution

7-day execution window set for Georgia's only woman on death row ---- Judge 
issues order saying Kelly Renee Gissendaner may be executed between noon on 29 
September and noon on 6 October


A court on Friday set a 7-day execution window for Georgia's only female death 
row inmate, whose execution was halted in March because of a problem with the 
lethal injection drug.

A Gwinnett County superior court judge issued an order Friday saying Kelly 
Renee Gissendaner may be executed between noon on 29 September and noon on 6 
October, attorney general Sam Olens said in a news release.

Gissendaner would be the 1st woman executed by the state in 70 years. She was 
convicted of murder in the February 1997 slaying of her husband, Douglas 
Gissendaner. Prosecutors said she conspired with her lover, Gregory Owen, who 
stabbed Douglas Gissendaner to death. Owen is serving a life sentence.

State officials on 2 March called off the scheduled execution of Gissendaner 
"out of an abundance of caution", saying the lethal injection drug they 
intended to use appeared "cloudy". Corrections officials suspended executions 
in the state until a drug analysis could be done.

Corrections officials in April released lab reports, a sworn statement from a 
pharmacological expert hired by the state and a short video showing a syringe 
of clear liquid with chunks of a white solid floating in the solution.

"After viewing a video of the solution and learning about the shipment and 
storage of the solution, my assessment of the formulation indicates that 
pentobarbital had precipitated or fallen out of solution," University of 
Georgia College of Pharmacy professor Jason Zastre wrote in a sworn statement 
released by the department.

The most likely cause of the formation of solids is that the solution was 
shipped and stored at a temperature that was too low, Zastre wrote. Another 
possible cause could be that the pharmaceutical solvent used to dissolve 
pentobarbital sodium during the compounding process either absorbed some water 
or evaporated during preparation, he wrote.

In a court filing in June, the department revealed that it did its own test on 
a new batch of pentobarbital made by the same compounding pharmacist who made 
the drug meant for Gissendaner's execution.

The department of corrections' chief of special projects, William King, stored 
1 sample in a refrigerator at 34 degrees and 1 in a room where the temperature 
fluctuated between 67 degrees and 72 degrees for 11 days, from 24 March to 3 
April. He checked them every day except for 2 days over a weekend and recorded 
the temperature and appearance and took a photo of the samples.

No changes were recorded in either sample. Both started and ended as clear 
liquid with no solids.

Gissendaner's lawyers had filed a complaint in federal court a week after her 
scheduled execution date saying the state was violating her constitutional 
rights. In a filing in June they argued that the state???s own test didn't 
support its cold storage theory, which strengthened their argument that 
Gissendaner should not be put to death until a judge determines her rights 
won't be violated.

The state countered that state officials consulted with Zastre and he said 
pentobarbital does not always precipitate when it is stored at a temperature 
that is too cold, and that Gissendaner's lawyers provided no scientific 
evidence to show that the state's explanation isn't correct.

The judge last month dismissed Gissendaner's complaint. Her lawyers earlier 
this month asked the judge to reconsider that ruling.

(source: The Guardian)






FLORIDA:

Opening statements made in trial of man accused in prison guard's death


Opening statements were made on Friday in the trial of a man accused of killing 
a Polk County detention deputy.

Prosecutors argue it was a push by 34-year-old Terrance Barnett that led to the 
death of Sergeant Ronnie Brown, but defense attorneys tell a different story.

Prosecutors say Barnett cornered himself in his jail cell, ready for a fight. 
They told jurors how the 6-foot-9, 250 pound inmate taunted detention deputies 
from his cell.

"He was saying, 'I'm going to take you out,'" said Prosecutor David Stamey.

Prosecutors then detailed how deputies tried to relocate Barnett to another 
unit but he refused, squared off with deputies, broke a sprinkler head and 
started flooding his jail cell.

Brown was one of the deputies who tried to restrain him.

"The defendant braces himself against the wall and with 2 hands ... pushes Sgt. 
Brown forcefully and he reached in to grab his arm," Stamey said.

It's that push that prosecutors say led to Brown's death. Brown was initially 
treated and released, but returned to the hospital where he died eight days 
later because of a blood clot.

Defense attorneys said the story prosecutors tell isn't what it seems and 
neither is the video they've produced as evidence.

"Out of all of the things, I expect the evidence will show that what they 
describe happened in that cell holding some sharp objects doing this, doing 
that ... [will not be shown] on the video," said defense attorney Robert 
Norgard.

The defense also argues the alleged push inside the cell didn't cause Brown's 
death.

"Sometimes life is stranger than fiction," Norgard said. "But in that same 
area, where his back happened to have been injured, was a malignant cancerous 
tumor."

Barnett is already in prison serving a 30-year prison sentence on another case. 
If convicted, he faces the death penalty.

(source: bay9news.com)




LOUISIANA:

Facing death, Louisiana serial killer Derrick Todd Lee loses state Supreme 
Court appeal


A man convicted of murdering 2 women and linked to 5 other south Louisiana 
slayings has lost his latest appeal in a death penalty case.

Louisiana's Supreme Court on Friday rejected Derrick Todd Lee's appeal of his 
conviction and death sentence in the 2002 death of LSU graduate student 
Charlotte Murray Pace in Baton Rouge.

Lee's arguments included a claim that the district court provided the defense 
too little funding for adequate DNA testing of evidence. The high court 
rejected that and other arguments.

Lee also was convicted of 2nd-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison in 
the 2002 killing of Geralyn Barr DeSoto of Addis. He also was implicated in the 
slaying of a woman in Lafayette, 1 in Zachary and 3 others in Baton Rouge.

(source: Associated Press)

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

Trial Date Set for Landon Broussard


The judge presiding over Landon Broussard's death penalty case says his trial 
will be held July 25, 2016.

According to the Acadiana Advocate, that same state district judge refused to 
house Broussard in the Lafayette Parish jail until the trial, which was 
requested by his defense attorneys.

The trial could last at least a month, as jurors weigh the evidence in the 2012 
beating death of 3-year-old Julian Madera.

Julian's mother, and Broussard's girlfriend at the time of the incident, Laura 
Smith, pleaded guilty to negligence and is currently serving a 5-year prison 
sentence.

Broussard was indicted on 1 count of 1st-degree murder in March 2013. 
Prosecutors say they are seeking the death penalty in the killing of a child.

(source: KATC news)

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