[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----N.H., VA., GA., MO., OKLA., KAN.

[Rick Halperin]

Sept. 28



NEW HAMPSHIRE:

Addison attorney challenges death penalty law----Motion argues that death 
penalty is unconstitutional


An attorney for New Hampshire's only death-row inmate is challenging the 
constitutionality of the state's death penalty law.

In a recently filed motion, a lawyer for Michael Addison argues that the two 
methods of execution allowed by New Hampshire -- lethal injection and hanging 
-- violate the state and federal constitutions, including the Eighth 
Amendment's ban on cruel and unusual punishment. The attorney argued that the 
drugs needed for lethal injection are unavailable and would inflict pain and 
suffering.

Senior Assistant Attorney General Jeff Strelzin said the state plans to file a 
response.

Addison was sentenced to death for the 2006 killing of Manchester police 
officer Michael Briggs. The state Supreme Court upheld his sentence in April.

David Rothstein, Addison's attorney, said he also plans to file an appeal of 
the case with the U.S. Supreme Court within the next month.

New Hampshire's last execution was in 1939, and lethal injection was added as 
an execution method in 1986. The state has no designated facility for carrying 
out executions. Department of Corrections Commissioner William Wrenn has said 
the state may use a prison gymnasium to carry out Addison's execution rather 
than construct a costly new facility.

In the motion, first reported by New Hampshire Public Radio, Rothstein argues 
it will be difficult for the state to obtain the drugs necessary to ensure that 
Addison is not subject to pain and suffering during his execution. Because New 
Hampshire has never put anyone to death by lethal injection, the state has not 
developed proper procedures or protocols, he argued.

"A constitutional lethal injection process is dependent on the proper 
administration of the right drugs, in the right dosages, delivered by the right 
people, with the right safeguards," Rothstein wrote.

State law says executions can be carried out by hanging if it is impractical to 
use lethal injection. Rothstein argues death by hanging "offends contemporary 
norms and standards of decency."

The filing mentions recent executions in Ohio, Arizona and Oklahoma, where 
lethal injection procedures caused the people being put to death to gasp for 
air or writhe in pain.

"These executions demonstrate that lethal injection ... poses an acute risk of 
intolerable suffering," the motion says. "The fact that these states have 
experience with lethal injection, and New Hampshire has none, is cause for even 
greater concern."

Legislative efforts to repeal the death penalty over the past decade have 
failed. The debate over repeal in 2014 focused heavily on Addison, with repeal 
opponents arguing that it could jeopardize the state's ability to legally 
execute him. U.S. Sen. Kelly Ayotte, who prosecuted Addison while serving as 
attorney general, urged lawmakers not to repeal the death penalty.

Both the House and Senate passed a repeal bill in 2000, but then-Gov. Jeanne 
Shaheen, now a U.S. senator, vetoed it.

(source: WMUR news)






VIRGINIA----impending execution//foreign national

Virginia Preparing to Execute 1st Inmate in Nearly 3 Years


Virginia is poised to execute a convicted serial killer who claims he's 
intellectually disabled using lethal injection drugs from Texas because the 
state's supply of another controversial drug will expire the day before the 
execution is supposed to take place.

Unless Gov. Terry McAuliffe or the U.S. Supreme Court steps in this week, 
Alfredo Prieto will be the 1st Virginia inmate to be executed in nearly 3 years 
Thursday.

The El Salvador native was already facing execution in California for raping 
and murdering a 15-year-old girl when a Virginia jury sentenced him to death in 
2010 for the 1988 killings of Rachael Raver and her boyfriend, Warren Fulton 
III. California officials agreed to send him to Virginia on the rationale that 
it was more likely to carry out the execution.

Authorities have said DNA and ballistics evidence has linked Prieto to several 
other killings in California and Virginia but he was never prosecuted because 
he had already been sentenced to death.

Matthew Raver, Rachael Raver's brother, said Prieto's seemingly endless efforts 
to delay his execution have felt like "salt in the wound" for his family, which 
remains devastated by his sister's death nearly three decades later. Matthew 
Raver plans to attend the execution at the Greensville Correctional Center.

"I look forward to it as a relief that this individual ... and all his games, 
his plotting, his violence has ended," Matthew Raver said.

But Prieto's lawyers are still fighting to prove that the 49-year-old is 
intellectually disabled and therefore disqualified for the death penalty.

Prieto's exposure to violence in warn-torn El Salvador and a lack of proper 
nutrition because his family was poor contributed to "significant brain 
dysfunction" that affected his ability to think abstractly and control his 
impulses, Ricardo Weinstein, a psychologist who evaluated Prieto at the 
defense's request, said during his trial in 2007.

As a child, Prieto struggled with learning and was quiet and withdrawn, often 
sitting alone and "staring blankly at nothing," Prieto's attorneys said last 
week in their request to McAuliffe to delay the execution. They want Prieto to 
return to California, where they believe he can receive a "full and fair" 
assessment of his intellectual disability. McAuliffe has not yet made a 
decision on Prieto's request.

Prieto's lawyers appealed his death sentence after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 
last year that rigid cutoffs on IQ test scores used in Florida to determine 
whether someone is intellectually disabled were unconstitutional. Virginia had 
a virtually identical law.

But a federal appeals court ruled in June that Prieto failed to prove that no 
reasonable juror would find him eligible for execution, saying that Prieto's 
ability to handle everyday tasks was "at best inconclusive."

Psychologists testifying for the prosecution noted that Prieto was well-spoken, 
bilingual and analytical. But Prieto's attorneys and advocates for people with 
intellectual disabilities say his cognitive strengths are irrelevant.

"You shouldn't discard the idea that someone has an intellectual disability 
just because they have a girlfriend or a job," said Rob Lee, one of Prieto's 
lawyers.

They have appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, which has not yet decided whether 
it would hear the case. Prieto has also asked the justices to rule on the 
constitutionality of Virginia's policy of automatically placing death row 
inmates in solitary confinement.

With 110 executions, Virginia ranks just 3rd in the nation for the number 
carried out since the Supreme Court reinstated capital punishment in 1976.

But the state hasn't executed an inmate since January 2013, when Robert Gleason 
Jr. was put to death in the state's electric chair, which inmates can choose 
over lethal injection. Gleason had been serving a life in prison for a 2007 
murder when he killed his cellmate in 2009.

Since Prieto didn't make a choice, the state will use a lethal 3-drug cocktail.

The 1st drug will be pentobarbital that Virginia obtained from Texas because 
its supply of midazolam will expire on Wednesday, said Lisa Kinney, a 
spokeswoman for the Virginia Department of Corrections. Virginia recently 
approved the use of midazolam -- a controversial drug used in a botched 
execution in Oklahoma last year -- but has never used it.

Death penalty opponents, who have been pressing McAuliffe to call off the 
execution, plan to hold vigils at 10 locations across the state Thursday 
evening.

Dede Raver, Rachael Raver's sister, said she believes Prieto's execution will 
help her and others who were affected by the killings to close a long and 
painful chapter in their lives.

"I have no interest in taking someone's life away, but honestly I feel like 
Prieto will return to hell," she said. "This man is so evil and he has no 
regard for human life."

(source: nbcwashington.com)

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

Convicted killer who claims disability to be executed in Virginia


A convicted serial killer who claims he's intellectually disabled is scheduled 
to be executed in Virginia on Thursday - by using drugs from Texas.

Alfredo Prieto was sentenced to death 5 years ago for the 1988 killing of a 
couple, both George Washington University students.

Lawyers for the convict - who was on death row in California from 1990 until 
his transfer to Virginia, when he was found guilty of the rape and murder of a 
15-year-old girl - want him to be returned to the golden state, where they 
believe he will receive a fair assessment of his alleged handicap, The 
Associated Press reported.

Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe faces a decision on whether or not to allow an 
execution go through as planned on Thursday.

The attorneys argue that Prieto's upbringing in his native El Salvador has 
hindered his ability to maintain proper brain function and keep control of his 
actions.

The Arc of Virginia, an advocacy group for people with intellectual 
disabilities, has also called on Gov. Terry McAuliffe to delay the execution.

As they wait for McAuliffe to make a decision, the Texas Department of Criminal 
Justice confirmed that it sent 3 vials of the execution drug pentobarbital to 
Virginia.

The trade was initially leaked in a court filing for a death penalty case in 
Oklahoma - where, like Texas, laws allow prison officials to not disclose where 
they get execution drugs.

McAuliffe supported a similar bill in Virginia, but it ultimately failed.

Since capital punishment was re-authorized by the Supreme Court in 1976, there 
have been 110 executions in the Commonwealth of Virginia - which places it 3rd 
in the nation for the most carried out in that time.

There is also growing political pressure since public support for the death 
penalty has reached its lowest numbers in 40 years, according to a Pew Research 
Center poll conducted in April.

McAuliffe's spokesmani told The Washngton Post in February that the governor 
opposes the death penalty because he is a Catholic but that "he will enforce 
the law."

Stopping or delaying an execution would not be an unprecedented move since 5 of 
the last 6 Virginia governors have used this executive power due to reasons of 
possible innocence or mental health concerns like Prieto is claiming.

Though Virginia has received attention in the past 2 presidential elections as 
a key swing state, on the state-level it still has a strong Republican majority 
in the house and a slim majority in the state senate that has worked to block 
any legislation on restrictions to the death penalty.

McAuliffe is now in the position of being the 3rd sitting Democratic governor - 
joining Missouri and Delaware - to execute an order of capital punishment.

(source: New York Daily News)






GEORGIA----impending female execution

Ministers Want Execution Halted For The Only Woman On Georgia Death Row


Kelly Renee Gissendaner is the only woman on Georgia's death row. She was 
convicted of the 1997 stabbing death of her husband Douglas Gissendaner. She 
was accused of orchestrating the murder, for which her lover Gregory Owen was 
sentenced to life in prison. He testified against Gissendaner and is eligible 
for parole in 2022.

The 47 year old Gissendaner is scheduled to be put to death at 7pm tomorrow. 
She would be the 1st woman to be executed by Georgia in 70 years. An earlier 
postponement of her execution in March occurred after concerns surfaced about 
the lethal injection drugs that were to be used. Reports indicate that a 
federal judge today declined to halt the execution. Lawyers for Gissendaner had 
contended that the more than a dozen hours spent by Gissendaner in March, as it 
was determined whether or not she'd be put to death, was cruel and unusual 
punishment.

Among those also calling for Gissendaner's life to be spared are Rev. Kim 
Jackson, Episcopal Chaplain with the Atlanta University Center, Min. Cassandra 
Henderson with the Youth and Children's Program at Ebenezer Baptist Church in 
Atlanta, and Letitia Campbell with the Candler School of Theology.

Rev. Jackson says that Gissendaner's life should be spared because "human life 
is worth saving." According to Jackson, "Kelly has had an experience of 
transformation and redemption." Minister Henderson has served as a chaplain at 
Lee Arrendale State Prison, where Gissendaner was kept as an inmate. According 
to Henderson, "I sat with Kelly, I prayed with Kelly, and I got to see what 
transformation looks like."

Letitia Campbell is with the Candler School of Theology. She knows Gissendaner 
through the program that Candler sponsors through the women's prison at 
Arrendale. "Many of my students, and the women affiliated with the theology 
program at Arrendale were deeply moved by Kelly", says Campbell. "In many 
cases", acccording to Campbell, "these women credit Kelly with saving their 
lives."

Jackson, Henderson, and Campbell are advocating for Gissendaner to receive a 
life sentence with no opportunity for parole. Even that sentence, according to 
Rev. Jackson, "is still not equal to what the person who actually committed the 
murder received."

(source: CBS news)

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

Judge denies Kelly Gissendaner's stay of execution request, restraining order 
against state


Federal Judge Thomas Thrash, Jr. of the Northern District of Georgia has denied 
Kelly Gissendaner's emergency motion for a stay of execution. He has also 
denied her emergency motion for a restraining order against the state.

The only woman on Georgia's death row is set to be put to death by lethal 
injection on Tuesday, Sept. 29.

If the execution goes forward, Kelly Gissendaner will be the first woman 
executed in the state in several decades; she's the 35th person put to death by 
lethal execution.

This after lawyers for Gissendaner scrambled to try to convince a judge to halt 
her execution, which is scheduled to take place Tuesday night.

She's the only woman on Georgia's death row, and she's scheduled to die by 
lethal injection.

Gissendaner's lawyer, Gerald King, Jr says he will appeal to the 11th Circuit 
County of Appeals.

Gissendaner does have a surprising new ally in her fight. He's one of the 
people who originally gave the stamp of approval for her to be put to death.

In an exclusive interview with CBS46 News, former Georgia Supreme Court Justice 
Norman Fletcher said he now regrets his decision to uphold Gissendaner's 
execution. She was convicted of conspiring with her lover to kill her husband, 
Doug Gissendaner, in 1997.

Fletcher said he changed his mind after learning that Gissendaner's accomplice 
later admitted he lied about her being there for the murder.

"If we had known that, it could have very well changed some outcome," Fletcher 
said.

Fletcher also said he's not convinced it's enough to keep her from being put to 
death because the wheels are already in motion.

"There are a lot of procedural bars that are involved under the law which 
sometimes are very unjust," said Fletcher. "I have high hopes that the Board of 
Pardon and Parole will reconsider and actually commute her sentence either to 
life with parole or life without parole."

Fletcher said he opposes the death penalty altogether because of the 
possibility of making irreversible mistakes and because of the cost.

"We spend approximately ten percent of all court resources on death penalty 
cases," he said.

The family of Doug Gissendaner released the following statement:

"We have been asked by various news outlets for a statement regarding the 
pending execution of Kelly Gissendaner. While the focus should be on Doug, the 
victim, we offer the following in response:

"Kelly planned and executed Doug's murder. She targeted him and his death was 
intentional. Kelly chose to have her day in court and after hearing the facts 
of this case, a jury of her peers sentenced her to death. In the last 18 years, 
our mission has been to seek justice for Doug's murder and to keep his memory 
alive. We have faith in our legal system and do believe that Kelly has been 
afforded every right that our legal system affords. As the murderer, she's been 
given more rights and opportunity over the last 18 years than she ever afforded 
to Doug who, again, is the victim here. She had no mercy, gave him no rights, 
no choices, nor the opportunity to live his life. His life was not hers to 
take.

"But we want to take this opportunity to ask you to focus on Doug, not Kelly. 
For those of you who did not have the pleasure of knowing Doug, he was a truly 
wonderful person, the kind of selfless person who always thought of others 
instead of himself. His last act on earth was helping his friends. He was a 
friendly, trusting, good-hearted soul with a smile that will never be 
forgotten. He was undisputedly a family man, a great friend and an even greater 
father who loved and sacrificed everything for the sake of his daughter and 2 
stepsons. For those of us that loved him, we will always feel great sorrow and 
indescribable pain at how he was so brutally taken from us, but also take 
comfort in knowing that he's in heaven waiting for each and every one of us to 
rejoin him someday.

"We would like to thank our family, friends and other supporters for your 
continued prayers and words of comfort and support. We have been following 
online comments very closely and while we prefer to keep our privacy, know that 
we are truly thankful for your kind comments.

"To all who read this---we ask you to remember Doug and honor his memory by 
telling the ones you love how much you love them. He would love that. We pray 
that his memory will bring a smile to the faces of all that knew him and even 
those who didn't."

(source: WCGL news)






MISSOURI----impending execution

Advocates say man facing execution next week in Missouri in death of ex-wife is 
innocent


Missouri risks executing an innocent man next week, advocates for Kimber 
Edwards warned Monday, citing a key witness who says his testimony was coerced 
and the inmate's contention that his own confession was false.

Edwards, a 51-year-old former St. Louis jailer, was convicted of hiring Orthell 
Wilson to kill his ex-wife, Kimberly Cantrell, in 2000 in her suburban St. 
Louis apartment. His execution is scheduled for Oct. 6.

Prosecutors said Edwards wanted Cantrell dead so he didn't have to pay child 
support. Wilson was sentenced to life in prison after a plea deal in which he 
agreed to cooperate against Edwards. Edwards confessed to the crime.

But Edwards' attorney, Jeremy Weis, and Tricia Bushnell, legal director of the 
Midwest Innocence Project, said Wilson has since said in an affidavit that he 
was trying to save himself from the death penalty when he cooperated against 
Edwards. Meanwhile, Edwards has recanted his confession.

"This could become a case where we could execute an innocent man without even 
looking at the evidence that he is innocent," Bushnell said.

Weis said he has asked the Missouri Supreme Court and Gov. Jay Nixon to halt 
the execution. Messages seeking comment from representatives for Nixon and 
Attorney General Chris Koster were not immediately returned.

Bushnell said false confessions are not uncommon. An Innocence Project 
examination of murder convictions overturned by DNA evidence found false 
confessions in nearly two-thirds of those cases, she said.

Edwards was diagnosed as autistic after his conviction, Weis said. Autistic 
people are more susceptible to confession to crimes they didn't commit, said 
Dennis Debbaudt, an expert on the relationship between those with autism and 
law enforcement.

Edwards and Cantrell had divorced in 1990, with Cantrell taking custody of 
their daughter, Erica. In early 2000, Edwards was charged for failing to pay 
child support. He faced a court appearance on Aug. 25, 2000.

Erica stayed with her father for 3 weeks prior to the hearing, but became 
concerned when she did not hear from her mother by Aug. 23. She called her 
aunt, who went to Cantrell's home in University City and found the body. 
Cantrell, 35, had been shot twice in the head the day before.

Wilson, a tenant in a rental property owned by Edwards, was arrested and 
pleaded guilty to 1st-degree murder for killing Cantrell. He was sentenced to 
life in prison without parole after implicating Edwards.

Police said Edwards admitted to paying a man $1,600 for the contract killing.

In an affidavit in May, Wilson said he was "coerced by police to implicate 
Edwards" by threat of the death penalty. Wilson now says he acted alone. Weis 
said Wilson and Cantrell were in a relationship and he killed her after an 
argument.

"Kimber Edwards is completely innocent," Wilson said in his affidavit.

Edwards, meanwhile, has long contended he was framed and had no motive to kill 
his wife because the couple had worked out a child support agreement.

Edwards' supporters also claim racial bias in his conviction and sentencing - 
Edwards is black and was convicted by an all-white jury.

He was first scheduled to be executed in May, but the Missouri Supreme Court 
stayed the execution without explanation. Weis said the reprieve may have been 
because the attorneys were too busy with other cases to give attention to 
Edwards' case.

(source: Associated Press)






OKLAHOMA----impending execution

Oklahoma's highest criminal court rejects death row inmate's innocence claim; 
execution set


An Oklahoma appeals court on Monday narrowly denied a death row inmate's 
last-minute request for a new hearing and ordered that his execution may 
proceed.

In a 3-2 decision, the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals denied Richard 
Glossip's request for an evidentiary hearing and an emergency stay of 
execution. The court ruled the state can proceed with Glossip's execution, 
which is scheduled for Wednesday at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in 
McAlester.

Glossip, 52, was scheduled to be executed on Sept. 16 for ordering the beating 
death of a motel owner, despite his claims that he was framed by the actual 
killer, Justin Sneed, who is serving a life sentence. But just hours before he 
was set to receive a lethal injection, the court granted Glossip a 2-week 
reprieve after his attorneys claimed they had new evidence that he was 
innocent, including another inmate's claim that he overheard Sneed admit to 
framing Glossip.

But the court ruled the new evidence simply expands on theories that were 
already raised on his original appeals.

"This evidence merely builds upon evidence previously presented to this court," 
Judge David Lewis wrote in his opinion.

Glossip's execution will be the 1st in Oklahoma since a sharply divided U.S. 
Supreme Court upheld the state's 3-drug lethal injection formula in June. 
Glossip, the lead plaintiff in the case, argued that the sedative midazolam 
violated the U.S. Constitution's ban on cruel and unusual punishment because it 
didn't adequately render an inmate unconscious before the 2nd and 3rd drugs 
were administered.

Glossip's case attracted international attention after actress Susan Sarandon, 
who portrayed nun and death penalty opponent Sister Helen Prejean in the movie 
"Dead Man Walking," took up his cause. Prejean has served as Glossip's 
spiritual adviser and frequently visited him in prison.

(source: Associated Press)

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

Oklahoma court denies Richard Glossip's request for a stay of execution


2 weeks ago, Oklahoma was hours away from executing Richard Glossip when a 
state court stepped in and delayed his execution so it could consider his 
appeals. On Monday, the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals said it was 
rejecting these appeals and Glossip's request for a stay of execution. As a 
result, Glossip's lethal injection remains scheduled for Wednesday afternoon.

Glossip's case has stretched over the better part of 2 decades, but it has 
received renewed attention as his execution date approached. His attorneys 
asked the state appeals court to halt his execution earlier this month because 
they argued that Glossip was improperly tried and sentenced.

He was sentenced to death for the murder of a motel owner named Barry Van 
Treese, though he was not convicted of personally killing Van Treese. In 1997, 
Van Treese was beaten to death with a baseball bat, and Glossip - who worked 
for Van Treese - was found guilty of paying another motel worker to kill him.

Justin Sneed, who confessed to killing Van Treese, testified against Glossip, 
and he was sentenced to life in prison without parole while Glossip received a 
death sentence. Glossip, 52, was convicted of murder and sentenced to death 2 
separate times. He was first sentenced in 1998, but that sentence was 
overturned due to what a state court deemed ineffective legal counsel, and he 
was sentenced again in 2004.

However, Glossip's attorneys argue that executing him based on Sneed's 
testimony "risks a wrongful execution." They also submitted an affidavit from a 
man who said that while in an Oklahoma state prison, he heard Sneed say that 
Glossip hadn't done anything.

The appeals court decided 3-2 to reject Glossip's claims and arguments, finding 
that his conviction was "not based solely on the testimony of a codefendant" 
and adding that the same court believed Sneed's testimony "was sufficiently 
corroborated for a conviction," according to an opinion from Judge David Lewis.

Presiding Judge Clancy Smith dissented, though, arguing that "the tenuous 
evidence in this case is questionable at best" if Sneed had disavowed his 
earlier remarks, and writing that she would allow a 60-day stay to allow for an 
penitentiary hearing.

Glossip's attorneys pointed to the 3-2 decision in arguing that a man should 
not be put to death when 2 judges felt the execution should be delayed.

"We should all be deeply concerned about an execution under such 
circumstances," Donald Knight, an attorney for Glossip, said in a statement 
Monday afternoon.

The execution currently scheduled for Wednesday will mark the 3rd time this 
year Oklahoma will attempt to put Glossip to death.

An execution date in January was nixed when the U.S. Supreme Court decided to 
hear the case. The court later upheld Oklahoma's protocol as constitutional, 
while Justice Stephen Breyer, in a dissent joined by Justice Ruth Bader 
Ginsberg, questioned whether capital punishment itself was unconstitutional. 
That case bore Glossip's name, though it was focused on the particular drugs 
used by Oklahoma and larger questions about how capital punishment is carried 
out in the United States.

Oklahoma had intended to execute Glossip on Sept. 16 in what would have been 
the state's 1st execution since the Supreme Court ruling, but the appeals court 
called that off with hours to spare. When the order delaying the execution for 
2 weeks came down, Glossip was so close to his scheduled execution time that he 
had already been served his final meal.

In addition to their requests to the Oklahoma court, Glossip's attorneys had 
also asked Gov. Mary Fallin (R) to stay the execution, arguing that the lethal 
injection should be halted due to new evidence. However, Fallin denied these 
requests, and she said her office determined that none of the evidence 
presented by Glossip's attorneys changed her mind.

"After carefully reviewing the facts of this case multiple times, I see no 
reason to cast doubt on the guilty verdict reached by the jury or to delay 
Glossip's sentence of death," she said in a statement earlier this month. 
Fallin also said her office would respect the appeals court's decision.

High-profile voices have called on state officials to call off Glossip's 
execution due to the questions over his conviction. Sister Helen Prejean, a 
prominent death penalty opponent, and Susan Sarandon, an activist and actress 
who won an Oscar for portraying Prejean in the movie "Dead Man Walking," both 
asked the state to stop the lethal injection.

As of Monday, more than 244,000 people had signed a MoveOn.org petition from 
Prejean and Sarandon asking Fallin to delay the execution due to "a 
breathtaking lack of evidence" in the case.

In a letter published earlier this month, U.S. Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), 
former University of Oklahoma football coach Barry Switzer and Barry Scheck, 
co-founder of the Innocence Project, were among those who called on Fallin 
to"prevent a deadly mistake" and stay the execution.

"We also don't know for sure whether Richard Glossip is innocent or guilty," 
they wrote in the letter. "That is precisely the problem."

Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt had said after the execution was delayed 
earlier this month that he was confident that the appeals court would "conclude 
there is nothing worthy which would lead the court to overturn" Glossip's 
guilty verdict and sentence.

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

After the bungled execution of Clayton Lockett last year, Oklahoma postponed 
all executions for months while it investigated what happened and tinkered with 
its execution protocol. Lockett, a convicted murderer, grimaced and kicked 
during his prolonged execution, 1 of 3 lethal injections that went awry last 
year and drew increased scrutiny to the scattershot way executions are carried 
out in the United States.

(source: Associated Press)

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

"Death and Justice: An Expose of Oklahoma's Death Row Machine" by Mark 
Fuhrman----BOOK REVIEW: Death and Justice: An Expose of Oklahoma's Death Row 
Machine by Mark Fuhrman, (William Morrow) 2003


Anyone who has been following Tim Farley's excellent Red Dirt Report articles 
on the case of death row inmate Richard Glossip has to have an uneasy feeling, 
whatever their opinion of Glossip's guilt or innocence.

Is Glossip an innocent man wrongfully convicted? Was the evidence sufficient to 
meet the reasonable doubt standard regardless of his guilt or innocence?

And if Glossip is an innocent man who may die next week for a crime he did not 
commit, are there others like him? Is the system broken?

More than a decade ago former Los Angeles Police Detective Mark Fuhrman was 
invited to come to Oklahoma to find out.

Fuhrman is a cop turned investigative journalist. As a true crime writer any 
book by him comes with instant name recognition. A notoriety based on being the 
only person involved in the trial and acquittal of O.J. Simpson to come out 
with a felony conviction.

A felony conviction for perjury, based on a lie he told on the stand 
conclusively refuted by eyewitness testimony and an audio recording that proved 
he had indeed used "the N-word" within the previous 10 years.

Fuhrman's credibility was called into question by defense attorneys trying to 
suggest he had planted evidence, a blood-stained glove, at the crime scene.

How ironic it is that Fuhrman's 4th book is about convictions tainted by 
misleading evidence and testimony.

The irony is not lost on Fuhrman.

Over the course of researching the book he reexamined his position as a 
self-described law-and-order death penalty advocate.

"When I first began this project, I didn't think there was anything 
fundamentally wrong with the death penalty. Instead, I had the conviction that 
any problems with capital punishment were rare and isolated instances where 
mistakes, usually unintentional, had been made. I certainly didn't want to see 
the death penalty abolished, which I believed was the ultimate motivation for 
many of its critics. They didn't want the system to work, because they wanted 
to change it. I knew the system wasn't perfect, but I believed that it worked."

Furhman was invited to come to Oklahoma in 2001, by Jack Dempsey Pointer, then 
president of the Oklahoma Criminal Defense Lawyers Association.

Fuhrman said he liked Oklahoma. He found the people friendly and open, even 
people who disagreed with him or didn't want to talk to him.

He also found a perfect storm of factors that created an alarming possibility 
of wrongful convictions. A population that largely favors the death penalty.

Detectives and prosecutors so convinced of their gut feelings they ceased to 
inquire in any but the most cursory fashion once they became fixated on a 
suspect and a theory of the case. A media that supported them uncritically.

And a forensic examiner Joyce Gilchrist, who gave Oklahoma County District 
Attorney Bob Macy everything he asked for. Who testified beyond the limits of 
forensic science, tampered with evidence, destroyed evidence, contaminated 
evidence, and gave personal opinions of guilt on the stand disguised as the 
product of evidence.

If this were not a true crime story it might easily be a horror story worthy of 
Stephen King.

Fuhrman's dispassionate workmanlike prose details how possibly innocent men 
were convicted of heinous crimes. How guilty men were convicted on inadequate 
or tainted evidence which may cause them to be released. And how Macy convinced 
juries to disregard strong alibis based on what now seem like absurd theories 
of guilt.

In one case a defendant, no angel, had witnesses that he was in Texas within an 
hour of a murder in Oklahoma City he allegedly committed. Macy sold the jury a 
theory that he had flown to Oklahoma on a Lear Jet to commit the crime, in 
spite of the fact no such jet was recorded to have flown into or out of any 
airfield nearby.

Bob Macy was a larger-than-life figure; heroic in adversity, firm in 
friendship, implacable in hatred, and dangerous to cross. He loved Oklahoma and 
its people passionately and yearned to protect them, using any means at all. 
His tragic flaw was an unquestioned belief in his own rightness.

In the pursuit of justice he lost sight of all that insures justice. When he 
was finally shown beyond doubt that a man he convicted and sent to prison for 
15 years for rape was innocent - it broke him. He retired 18 months before his 
term ended.

In a 2001 ruling the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said, "Macy's 
persistent misconduct ... has without doubt harmed the reputation of Oklahoma's 
criminal justice system and left the unenviable legacy of an indelibly 
tarnished legal career."

Joyce Gilchrist died not long ago, still pursuing a lawsuit against the city 
for wrongful termination. If ever there was a case of a charming sociopath in a 
position to do so much harm, it was her.

And it is worth noting that if any of the 11 men sent to their deaths based on 
her testimony are ever proved to have been innocent - and this seems likely, 
she would have been eligible for the death penalty herself in California or 
Utah.

With that one exception this is not a story of bad men doing injustice. It is a 
story of good men working within a flawed system.

Bob Macy created a culture within the district attorney's office of "win at all 
costs."

Now 12 years after Fuhrman published his findings in Death and Justice we are 
confronted with the question of whether that culture is Macy's enduring legacy.

(source: reddirtreport.com)






KANSAS:

U.S. Supreme Court to Consider Kansas Death Penalty Cases


Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt's office is preparing for arguments 
before the U.S. Supreme Court next month. As KPR's Stephen Koranda reports, the 
justices will consider death sentences that were overturned by the Kansas 
Supreme Court.

At issue are the Carr brothers murders from Wichita in 2000 and the case of 
Sindney Gleason convicted of murders in 2004 in Barton County.

The Kansas Supreme Court overturned the death sentences in those cases, but 
left the underlying convictions intact.

For the Carr brothers, the Kansas high court said they should have had separate 
sentencing hearings.

In the Gleason case, the court said improper jury instructions were given.

The attorney general's office will argue before the U.S. Supreme Court that the 
Kansas Supreme Court came to the wrong conclusion when overturning the death 
sentences.

(source: KMUW news)