[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----N.H., DEL., VA., GA., FLA.

[Rick Halperin]

Sept. 29



NEW HAMPSHIRE:

Addison lawyers challenge dealth penalty in conviction for Manchester officer's 
murder


Lawyers representing Michael Addison have filed a challenge to his 2008 death 
penalty conviction, saying it violates the state and federal constitutions.

The filing was made Friday in Hillsbourgh County Superior Court North.Addison 
killed Manchester police Officer Michael Briggs in October 2006.

The New Hampshire Supreme Court affirmed his sentence earlier this year.

The latest court filing claims the death penalty amounts to cruel and unusual 
punishment, which violates provisions of the state and federal constitutions.

It also claims that one of the class of drugs that the New Hampshire death 
penalty requires - ultra-short acting barbituate - is difficult to find.It also 
said the state lacks any procedures for ensure that people administering the 
drugs are properly trained.

The motion, which has yet to be scheduled before a Superior Court judge, cites 
three 2014 executions that went awry: The Ohio execution of Dennis McGuire, 
which took 25 mintues; The Oklahoma execution of Clayton Lockett, where he 
reportedly grimaced and writhed; and the Arizona execution of Joseph Wood, 
where he reportedly gasped more than 600 times.

"These executions demonstrate that lethal injection, once thought to be as 
simple a process as giving an injection that painlessly puts the inmate to 
death, poses an acute risk of intolerable suffering," reads the motion, filed 
by David Rothstein, deputy director of the New Hampshire public defender 
program.

(source: Union Leader)






DELAWARE:

Convicted murderer Sadiki Garden dies after illness


A convicted murderer serving a life sentence at Vaughn Correctional Center near 
Smyrna died Sunday.

Sadiki Garden, 40, of New Castle, died of natural causes at Christiana Hospital 
after an illness, according to Jason Miller, spokesman for the Delaware 
Department of Correction.

Delaware State Police is conducting an investigation, though foul play is not 
suspected, Miller said. Garden's body was turned over to the state Division of 
Forensic Science.

Garden was serving a life sentence for the December 1999 murder of Denise 
Rhudy, a 36-year-old mother of 4 who lived in Newark. Garden shot Rhudy once 
through the chest and once through the shoulder and neck in a botched robbery 
in a Wilmington Parking Authority-owned lot outside the now-closed Bottlecaps 
Bar & Restaurant on the 200 block of West Ninth St. in downtown Wilmington.

A jury voted 10-2 that Garden should serve a life sentence for the slaying, but 
Judge John E. Babiarz Jr. imposed a death penalty. The Delaware Supreme Court 
overruled the sentence and sent the case back to Babiarz with instruction to 
give the jury recommendation greater weight.

However, Babiarz again imposed a death sentence, and the Supreme Court in 2004 
sent back the case with instructions that all but ordered Babiarz to impose a 
life sentence. Later on, the Delaware General Assembly clarified state law to 
note a judge is not bound by the jury's recommendation, but the judge had to 
give the jury recommendation "appropriate weight."

(source: The News Journal)






VIRGINIA----impending execution

Va. governor rejects bid to halt execution of inmate who says he's 
intellectually disabled


Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe on Monday denied a last-minute attempt to delay 
the execution of a convicted serial killer who says that his life should be 
spared because he is intellectually disabled.

Unless 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.

Prieto's attorneys had asked the Democratic governor to grant a temporary 
reprieve of his execution so he could be transferred to California, where they 
hoped to argue that he's ineligible for the death penalty because he is 
intellectually disabled.

But McAuliffe said Monday that he won't intervene in the case, noting that 
state and federal appellate courts have already reviewed and denied the 
prisoner's request for relief.

"It is the Governor's responsibility to ensure that the laws of the 
Commonwealth are properly carried out unless circumstances merit a stay or 
commutation of the sentence," McAuliffe said in a statement. "After extensive 
review and deliberation, I have found no such circumstances, and have thus 
decided that this execution will move forward."

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 based on the rationale 
that Virginia was more likely to carry out the execution.

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

Rob Lee, one of Prieto's attorney's, called McAuliffe's decision "profoundly 
disappointing." He said in an email that it goes against past governors' 
efforts "to ensure that every time the most severe and final sanction is 
carried out in Virginia, it is done fairly."

Matthew Raver, Rachael Raver's brother, said Prieto's seemingly endless efforts 
to delay his execution have felt like "salt in the wound" for the victim's 
family, which remains devastated by Rachael Raver'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.

Prieto's exposure to violence in war-ravaged 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.

A federal appeals court in Virginia 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," Rob Lee said.

Prieto's lawyers have appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, which has not yet 
decided whether it will 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 3rd in the nation for the number carried 
out since the Supreme Court reinstated capital punishment in 1976. Prieto is 1 
of 8 inmates on death row.

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 
combination.

The 1st drug will be pentobarbital, which Virginia obtained from Texas because 
its supply of midazolam expires 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: Associated Press)






GEORGIA----impending female execution

Georgia grants clemency hearing hours before woman's scheduled execution ---- 
Kelly Renee Gissendaner would be first woman executed in state in 70 years


State officials have granted a new clemency hearing for the lone woman on 
Georgia's death row, hours after a federal judge declined an emergency request 
to temporarily halt her execution over concerns about the lethal injection 
drugs the state plans to use.

The Georgia board of pardons and paroles - the only entity with the authority 
to commute a death sentence - said in a news release on Monday that it will 
hold the hearing at 11 Tuesday morning before Kelly Renee Gissendaner's 
scheduled 7pm execution.

Susan Casey, a lawyer for Gissendaner, said the board set the new hearing after 
Gissendaner's oldest son asked to speak to the board members. Her other 2 
children had already asked the board to spare their mother's life at a hearing 
earlier this year.

Lawyers for Gissendaner had earlier been denied a request by US district court 
judge, Thomas Thrash to stay the execution and give himself time to rule on 
their request to reconsider his dismissal of a complaint they filed in March. 
Gissendaner's lawyers planned to appeal against Monday's ruling to the 11th US 
circuit court of appeals.

Gissendaner was convicted of the murder in February 1997 of her husband, 
Douglas Gissendaner. An earlier attempt to execute her in March was called off 
after she was already in the execution chamber over concerns that the single 
drug to be used appeared cloudy. Lawyers for Gissendaner argue that the 13 
hours she spent not knowing whether she would be executed immediately - or what 
drug would be used to kill her - amounted to cruel and unusual punishment.

If the execution happens, Gissendaner will be the first woman executed by the 
state in 70 years. Prosecutors said she conspired with her lover, Gregory Owen, 
who stabbed Douglas Gissendaner to death. Owen, who took a plea deal and 
testified against Gissendaner, is serving a life sentence and he will be 
eligible for parole in 2022.

Gissendaner's supporters last week released a video featuring 2 of her 3 
children. Dakota and Kayla Gissendaner talk in the video about overcoming their 
intense anger at their mother and the difficult journey to forgiving her.

"Forgiving our mother was the best way to truly honor our dad's memory," Dakota 
Gissendaner, who was 5 when his father died, said in the video.

"We've lost our dad," said Kayla Gissendaner, who was 7 at the time. "We can't 
imagine losing our mom too."

Georgia corrections officials temporarily suspended executions in the state 
until a drug analysis on the "cloudy" sample could be done. In April, they 
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.

Corrections officials have said the most likely cause of the formation of 
solids in the compounded pentobarbital was shipping and storage at a 
temperature that was too cold, but they noted that storage at a low temperature 
does not always cause pentobarbital to precipitate.

The department of corrections does not currently have pentobarbital on hand but 
will obtain it before the execution date, spokeswoman Gwendolyn Hogan said in 
an email. She did not immediately return phone messages on Monday and did not 
respond when asked several times by email whether the drug would come from the 
same compounding pharmacy that provided the problematic pentobarbital earlier 
this year.

Gissendaner's lawyers had filed a lawsuit in March saying the period of 
uncertainty after her execution was postponed, not knowing whether the state 
would try to proceed again before the execution window expired and what drugs 
it might use, amounted to "unconstitutional torment and uncertainty". They also 
raised questions about the quality of the lethal injection drug the state would 
be able to get in the future.

Gissendaner's execution has been scheduled for 7pm on Tuesday at the state 
prison in Jackson.

(source: The Guardian)

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

Georgia parole board will again consider the state's only female death-row 
inmate hours before her scheduled execution


Georgia's parole board says it will reconsider the case of Kelly Gissendaner, 
the only woman on the state's death row, in the hours before her scheduled 
lethal injection Tuesday.

Gissenander was scheduled to die by lethal injection earlier this year, but the 
state had called off her execution 2 different times. The 1st execution date 
was postponed due to a winter storm, while the 2nd was canceled because 
corrections officials said the lethal injection drugs appeared "cloudy." 
Georgia had indefinitely postponed its executions while it examined the drugs, 
eventually declaring that the drugs were likely too cold.

Authorities said earlier this month that they had scheduled a 3rd execution 
date for Gissendaner for Tuesday at 7 p.m.

Gissendaner was convicted of murdering her husband nearly 2 decades ago. She 
convinced her boyfriend, Gregory Owen, to kill Douglas Gissendaner, her 
husband, in February 1997, according to the office of Sam Olens, Georgia's 
attorney general. The following year, Gissendaner was convicted and sentenced 
to death.

However, as her execution date approached earlier this year, theologians and 
religious leaders had asked the state to halt the execution, pointing to 
Gissendaner's work completing a theology studies program while in prison.

Bishop Robert Wright of the Episcopal Diocese of Atlanta, who has asked Georgia 
Gov. Nathan Deal (R) to halt all executions in the state, signed a letter 
asking authorities to commute Gissendaner's death sentence and change her 
punishment to life in prison without parole. The letter argued that Gissendaner 
has "experienced a profound spiritual transformation" during her time behind 
bars.

Earlier this year, as the initial scheduled lethal injection loomed, her 
attorneys had filed an emergency stay request with the state parole board, 
which denied her clemency bid.

However, the parole board said Monday it would give her case another look due 
to a new request from Gissendaner.

The parole board announced that it would meet on Tuesday at 11 a.m. to "receive 
and consider supplemental information" regarding Gissendaner. It also said that 
its members had already reviewed a request made last week asking the board to 
reconsider its earlier rejection.

In Georgia, the Board of Pardons and Paroles is the only entity in the state 
that can commute a death sentence or change it to life in prison or life 
without parole. The board said that after it meets on Tuesday morning, its 
members will decide whether to reject her request or grant a 90-day stay so 
that it can consider whether to convert her death sentence to a sentence of 
life in prison without parole.

(source: Washington Post)






FLORIDA:

Legislators Want Death Sentences Unanimous ---- A Republican lawmaker is trying 
again to require Florida juries to vote unanimously to recommend a death 
sentence. The attempt usually goes nowhere, but this year supporters say 
there's a new wrinkle.


The U.S. Supreme Court is about to hear a challenge to Florida's death penalty 
sentencing procedure. Meanwhile, lawmakers are pushing reforms.

Florida is the only state that doesn't require a jury to vote unanimously to 
recommend a death sentence. And that's not justice, says Ingrid Delgado, an 
associate with the Florida Conference of Catholic Bishops.

"We're not then encouraging that jury to really deliberate and discuss if this 
case really is death eligible, if it merits a death sentence."

Reform-minded legislators have been trying for years to change the system and 
bills are already filed for 2016. But this year Delgado says things are 
different. The U.S. Supreme Court is about to hear a direct challenge to 
Florida's death penalty sentencing procedure, including non-unanimous 
recommendations.

But death penalty supporters say they're not too worried. The existing system 
survived numerous federal challenges and the Supreme Court seemed satisfied 
when it upheld Florida's death penalty in 1976.

Northwest Florida State Attorney Glenn Hess, head of the statewide prosecutors 
association, says the system gives juries more of a chance to fit the 
punishment to the crime.

"You may have Jack the Ripper, and you may have one soft-hearted juror who 
says, 'Oh, I can't vote for death,' and Jack the Ripper may not get the death 
penalty. And that would violate the concept of proportionality."

The court is scheduled to hear the case on October 13.

(source: WFSU news)