[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, FLA., OHIO, TENN., IND., ARK., OKLA., ARIZ.

[Rick Halperin]

April 3



TEXAS----impending execution

Texas Prepares for Execution of Pablo Vasquez on April 6, 2016


Pablo Lucio Vasquez is scheduled to be executed at 6 pm CDT, on Wednesday, 
April 6, 2016, at the Walls Unit of the Huntsville State Penitentiary in 
Huntsville, Texas. 38-year-old Pablo is convicted of the murder of 12-year-old 
David Cardenas, on April 17-18, 1998, in Donna, Texas. Pablo has spent the last 
17 years of his life on Texas' death row.

Pablo dropped out of school after completing the 8th grade. He had no prior 
prison record.

On the evening of April 17, 1998, Pablo Vasquez and his 15-year-old cousin Andy 
Chapa, attended a party at which David Cardenas was also present. After the 
party, Chapa and Vasquez took David. They struck him with a metal pipe, slashed 
his neck, and drank the boy's blood. Vasquez and Chapa then attempted to bury 
him.

David, who was assumed to be relatives for the weekend, was not reported 
missing until April 20. His body was found 2 days later. He had been scalped, 
was missing 1 of his arms and part of another, and had no skin on his back. His 
body had also been mutilated after death. Additionally, David had been robbed.

Police quickly detained Vasquez and questioned him. Vazquez admitted to hitting 
the boy, cutting his throat, and drinking his blood, along with dragging his 
body through a field and burying him. Chapa later testified that Vasquez killed 
the boy because David did not "give him what he wanted" During his trial, 
Vasquez claimed that the "devil" and other voices made him do it.

Vasquez was convicted of David's murder and sentenced to death. Chapa was 
sentenced to 35 years in prison after pleading guilty. 3 others were convicted 
of helping to cover-up the murder, resulting in 10 years probation, a fine, and 
restitution to David's family.

Please pray for peace and healing for the family of David Cardenas. Please pray 
for strength for the family of Pablo Vasquez. Please pray that if Pablo is 
innocent, lacks the competency to be executed, or should not be executed for 
any other reason, that evidence will be presented prior to his execution. 
Please pray that Pablo may come to find peace through a personal relationship 
with Jesus Christ, if he has not already.

(source: theforgivenessfoundation.org)

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

Race and the Death Penalty in Texas


This month, the Supreme Court will consider whether to hear the appeal of Duane 
Buck, a black man from Texas who was sentenced to die for the 1995 murder of 
his ex-girlfriend and a man who was with her. There is no dispute about his 
guilt; the issue is how he ended up on death row.

Under Texas law, a person can be sentenced to death only if prosecutors can 
show that he or she poses a future danger to society. During the trial's 
penalty phase, Mr. Buck's defense lawyer called a psychologist who testified 
that race is one of the factors associated with future dangerousness. The 
prosecutor got the psychologist to affirm this on cross-examination, and the 
jury sentenced Mr. Buck to death.

In other words, Mr. Buck is scheduled to be executed at least in part because 
he is black. Nearly everyone who has had any involvement with Mr. Buck's case 
agreed that making this link was wrong - including one of his prosecutors, 
Texas' state courts, the federal district and appeals courts, and the Supreme 
Court itself.

In fact, the psychologist who testified in Mr. Buck's case also said there was 
a link between race and dangerousness in 5 other cases with black or Latino 
defendants who were sentenced to death. All of those men received new 
sentencing hearings after Texas' attorney general at the time, John Cornyn, who 
is now a United States senator, agreed in 2000 that they were entitled to 
proceedings free of racial discrimination.

Mr. Buck, however, got no such relief. That's because it was his lawyer, not 
the prosecutor, who first elicited the psychologist's view on the correlation 
between race and future dangerousness.

That's an astonishingly flimsy rationale for allowing a state to kill someone. 
If, as Mr. Cornyn said in 2000, "it is inappropriate to allow race to be 
considered as a factor in our criminal justice system," does it matter who 
brought it up first? It did to the Supreme Court, which declined to review Mr. 
Buck's previous appeal in 2011, even though it called the testimony "bizarre 
and objectionable."

Mr. Buck is now back before the justices, this time with a claim that his trial 
lawyer was ineffective. A federal district judge said Mr. Buck's lawyer 
"recklessly exposed his client to the risks of racial prejudice," but still 
found that his case was not "extraordinary" enough to reopen.

It's hard to see how this case isn't extraordinary. The risk of prejudice is 
particularly high in Harris County, Tex., where Mr. Buck was sentenced. In a 
7-year period that included Mr. Buck's trial, Harris County prosecutors were 
more than 3 times as likely to seek the death penalty against a black defendant 
as against a white one. Over the past dozen years, every new death sentence in 
the county has been imposed on a man of color.

Racism, of course, has been central to the American death penalty from the 
start. 40 years ago, the Supreme Court reversed its own brief moratorium and 
permitted executions to resume, provided that death sentences were not imposed 
in an "arbitrary or capricious manner."

4 decades later, the evidence is clear: The death penalty in 2016 is as 
arbitrary as ever - whether because of racial discrimination, bad lawyering, 
geographical variations or other factors. There is no way for the justices to 
rationalize capital punishment - not in Mr. Buck's case, or any other.

(source: Editorial Board, New York Times)






FLORIDA:

Florida death row exoneree to speak at Florida Atlantic----Seth Penalver will 
come to campus on April 5 to speak out against the death penalty


Seth Penalver spent 18 years in prison - 13 on death row - for a crime he 
didn't commit. Now, he's coming to Florida Atlantic this Tuesday to speak about 
his experiences.

The Beta Phi chapter of the American Criminal Justice Association will welcome 
Florida death row exoneree Seth Penalver on Tuesday, April 5 from 6 p.m. to 
7:30 p.m. in the Grand Palm Room within the Student Union.

According to the Sun Sentinel, in 1999, Penalver was sentenced to death for 
triple homicide and armed robbery in Broward County in 1994. The Florida 
Supreme Court overturned his sentence seven years later because of improper 
evidence at his trial.

The prosecution also withheld evidence: An informant was given a bribe in 
exchange for their testimony against Penalver and his co-defendant, Pablo Ibar, 
who is still on death row.

In 2012, Penalver was found not guilty of all charges. He has since spoken out 
against the death penalty across the state.

"He is the 142nd person to be exonerated from death row since 1973," reads the 
event flyer. "And the 24th such person in Florida, the most of any state."

The ACJA Beta Phi chapter is a co-educational fraternity at FAU for students 
interested in the criminal justice system. It invites criminal justice 
professionals to campus every semester, this time with the help of professor 
Cassandra Atkin-Plunk, who specializes in studying corrections.

President of ACJA Brandon Karns said, "This semester, we thought it would be 
interesting to show the other side of criminal justice, and to allow students 
to see that there are times where the system does not work as intended."

He added: "I believe this is important because many of our students aspire to 
be law enforcement officers or prosecutors, and as such they should realize the 
gravity of these positions and how they could potentially affect people's 
lives."

Penalver isn't the 1st death row exoneree to come to an FAU campus.

In 2009, ACJA welcomed former marine Kirk Bloodsworth, who gave a lecture on 
his time on death row. He is the 1st person on death row to be cleared of 
charges by DNA testing.

The event is free to all students and faculty. For more information, contact 
Karns at bkarns2013 at fau.edu.

(source: upressonline.com)






OHIO:

Trial for Ohio Man Charged With Killing 3 Women Set to Begin


The discovery in 2013 of 3 women's bodies wrapped in garbage bags raised fears 
and drew national attention to the possibility that another serial killer like 
Anthony Sowell had been killing women in and around Cleveland.

East Cleveland resident Michael Madison was arrested within days of the 
discovery, and after an exhaustive search around the neighborhood where he 
lived, no other bodies were found. The national media spotlight largely faded.

More than 2 1/2 years after Madison was indicted on multiple charges of 
aggravated murder, kidnapping and rape, jury selection for his trial is set to 
begin Monday in a Cleveland courtroom. He faces the death penalty if convicted.

Jury selection is expected to stretch into next week, and prosecutors have 
lined up at least 50 witnesses that could take an additional three weeks to 
question. Madison's attorneys aren't commenting on what evidence or witnesses 
they plan to present, but attorney David Grant said last week that if Madison 
is convicted, the defense team will work to save his life during the mitigation 
phase of the trial.

In Ohio, a jury can recommend the death penalty, but the ultimate decision is 
left to the judge.

"We're prepared to do whatever we have to do," Grant said.

The case involving Madison, 38, began with a cable television worker reporting 
to police in July 2013 a putrid smell coming from a garage shared by Madison at 
the apartment building where he lived. Once inside, police found the decaying 
body of a woman wrapped in garbage bags that were sealed closed with tape. The 
next day, searchers found bodies in the basement of a vacant house and in the 
backyard of a home close to where Madison lived.

Madison was arrested at his mother's home in Cleveland after a 2-hour standoff. 
Cuyahoga County prosecutors have said Madison confessed to killing 1 of the 
women and disposing her body and to disposing the body of a second woman. He 
told investigators he couldn't remember killing the other 2 women, blaming his 
faulty memory on drugs and beer.

Coincidentally, attorneys on Tuesday will present oral arguments to the Ohio 
Supreme Court on why Sowell shouldn't be put to death. The bodies of 11 women 
were found in and around his Cleveland home in 2009. He was convicted 2 years 
later.

The mayor of East Cleveland speculated that Madison might have been inspired by 
Sowell's crimes. Madison's trial judge agreed to a defense motion that forbids 
prosecutors from invoking Sowell's name during the trial because it would be 
prejudicial.

"It's not a comparable situation," Grant said.

Yet similarities exist.

Issues of abuse in their childhood homes have been raised. There was graphic 
testimony during the sentencing phase of Sowell's trial about the horrific 
abuse he witnessed in the East Cleveland home where he grew up. In court 
documents, a psychologist hired by the defense concluded that Madison likely 
suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms because of the "extreme 
trauma and abuse" he experienced as a child.

Madison's attorneys included in an appellate court filing items from a report 
by the Cuyahoga Department of Children and Family Services that said Madison 
was abused by his mother and stepfather as a child in the early 1980s. 
Caseworkers concluded that it was not safe for Madison to return home, and he 
was sent to live with his grandmother.

Both Madison and Sowell served time in prison for sex offenses. Madison served 
four years in prison after pleading guilty to attempted rape in 2002. Sowell 
served 15 years after pleading guilty to attempted rape in 1990. Madison's 
charges include one count of rape for what prosecutors said was the sexual 
assault of one of his victims. A jury convicted Sowell of four counts of rape 
during his aggravated murder trial.

The Cuyahoga County medical examiner determined that 2 of the 3 slain women - 
Shirellda Terry, 18, and Angela Deskins, 38 - were strangled. Shetisha Sheeley, 
28, died of "homicidal violence by unspecified means," the medical examiner 
ruled. Authorities believe all of Sowell's victims were strangled.

(source: Associated Press)






TENNESSEE:

Keeping DNA in death penalty cases a tool for justice----Senate Bill 2342 would 
preserve biologic evidence until the defendant is executed, dies or is released 
from prison.


DNA evidence can play a crucial role in identifying the guilty or exonerating 
the innocent. That is why I am sponsoring SB 2342, the DNA Preservation Act.

?SB 2342 seeks to address one shortcoming in the way our state deals with DNA 
or "biologic evidence."

While, in almost all death penalty cases, biologic evidence is catalogued and 
maintained until the execution of the convicted criminal, Tennessee does not 
mandate that this occurs. During a review of the death penalty in Tennessee, 
the American Bar Association specifically noted this weakness.

SB 2342 seeks to resolve this issue by codifying, in death penalty cases, all 
biological evidence collected for that case be preserved until the defendant is 
executed, dies or is released from prison.

In death penalty cases, it is typically 20 to 30 years before the sentence is 
carried out.

As a result, there is a 2-3 decade window when forensic science can advance and 
allow for more precise evaluation of biologic evidence.

While these potential advancements might have no impact on a particular case, 
in some circumstances, they might. That is why SB 2342 is so important.

?While there are countless instances where DNA evidence has exonerated the 
innocent or identified the true culprit, no story is more powerful than that of 
Tennessean Ray Krone.

In 1992, Krone was tried, convicted and sentenced to death for the murder of a 
bartender in Phoenix.

After winning a new trial in 1996, Krone was given a life sentence instead. 
Both convictions were based on a combination of eyewitnesses and testimony from 
"bite mark" experts.

Time has come for Tennessee to re-evaluate death penalty

After Krone spent 10 years in jail, however, DNA from a bite mark on the victim 
was analyzed and found to be from neither Krone nor the victim.

Though under no obligation to do so, the forensic lab technician entered this 
DNA into the national database and found it to be a match for Kenneth Phillips.

It turns out Phillips had a long history of violent crimes and had lived near 
the bar in Phoenix at the time of the murder for which Krone had been 
convicted.

Ray Krone was exonerated.

Kenneth Phillips was charged.M

Had the biologic evidence not been preserved in this case, an innocent man 
would still be in jail and a murderer walking the streets.

While circumstances like this are rare, the cost and effort to maintain 
biologic evidence is minimal when compared with our duty to ensure that our 
criminal justice system provides every possible safeguard when dealing with 
issues of life and death.

This is why I have sponsored SB 2342 and feel it is a logical, incremental step 
to improve the criminal justice system in Tennessee.

Sen. Steve Dickerson, R-Nashville, represents District 20 in the Tennessee 
Senate----The Tennessean)




INDIANA:

Prosecutor weighing death penalty in toddler's killing


A prosecutor's decision on whether to seek the death penalty against a man 
charged with abducting and killing a 1-year-old Indiana girl will come at a 
time when legal experts say fewer executions are being sought in the state with 
the high cost and long court appeals of such cases.

22-year-old Kyle Parker of Spencer faces charges of murder, rape and kidnapping 
in the death of Shaylyn Ammerman, whose body was found following 2 days of 
intensive searching after she was reported missing from her father's home.

The allegations against Parker include several factors that qualify for the 
death penalty under Indiana law - including committing a murder along with 
child molesting, kidnapping or rape and the victim being younger than 12.

A decision on seeking the death penalty often rests on the cost and on the 
possibility that appeals through state and federal courts can last 15 or 20 
years, said Jody Madeira, an Indiana University law professor who studies the 
death penalty.

"Families may want the death penalty, but then, they are tied to the crime and 
the defendant for a very long time," Madeira told The (Bloomington) 
Herald-Times. "And some say they want him to go away forever and never hear 
from him again."

Owen County Prosecutor Don VanDerMoere said after Parker's initial hearing 
Monday that he might take weeks considering whether to seek the death penalty 
or life without parole against Parker.

"At this point, we're not going to make an emotional decision," he said.

Parker pleaded not guilty to the charges during Monday's hearing. His public 
defender, Jacob Fish, hasn't returned telephone messages seeking comment.

Authorities say Parker drank whiskey with the girl's uncle and then waited 
until the family fell asleep inside the Spencer home before abducting the 
toddler in the early morning hours of March 23. According to the charging 
documents, Parker directed police the next day to where her body was found in a 
remote, wooded site outside the nearby town of Gosport, about 40 miles 
southwest of Indianapolis.

The average number of death penalty cases filed per year in Indiana has dropped 
from more than 25 to fewer than 2 over the past decade, said Paula Sites of the 
Indiana Public Defender Council.

Parker's attorney will likely request a mental health evaluation, but use of an 
insanity defense requires doctors determining that the defendant wasn't capable 
of knowing that what he was doing was wrong, said Jack Crawford, an 
Indianapolis defense attorney and former Lake County prosecutor not involved in 
the case.

But a detective's probable-cause affidavit describes actions like Parker 
pouring bleach on the child and hiding her body.

"That certainly indicates the mental capacity to realize 'I've done something 
very wrong and I'm going to try to hide my tracks,'" Crawford told WISH-TV.

Shaylyn's grandmother, Tamara Morgan, called the attack "total evil torture" 
and said she wanted the maximum punishment.

"Everything that he did to her should happen to him," Morgan told WTHR-TV 
"Everything. I mean, to me, there is nothing that he gets that will satisfy me 
unless it's death, because he took the most precious thing in the world away 
from me."

(source: Associated Press)






ARKANSAS:

Again, judge rules inmate mentally fit ---- Bid to void death sentence rejected

Death-row inmate Alvin Bernal Jackson isn't "intellectually disabled" enough to 
make him ineligible for the death penalty, U.S. District Judge Susan Webber 
Wright said last week in a ruling that has been pending for more than 4 years.

But before the ink was even dry on Wright's 50-page order, defense attorney 
Jeff Rosenzweig of Little Rock filed a notice of appeal to the 8th U.S. Circuit 
Court of Appeals in St. Louis.

Twice before, Wright has rejected Jackson's efforts to be heard on his quest to 
have his death sentence voided, and each time, the 8th Circuit has reversed 
her.

Meanwhile, the Arkansas Department of Correction inmate, who is now 45 years 
old, is protected from immediate execution by a lawsuit pending before the 
Arkansas Supreme Court that challenges Act 1096 of 2015, which spelled out 
execution protocols and shielded the source of the lethal drugs from the 
public. The lawsuit, filed by Rosenzweig on the day the law was passed, names 
nine death-row inmates, including Jackson, as plaintiffs.

In February, the Supreme Court granted the plaintiffs more time to make their 
case despite arguments by state attorneys that the plaintiffs are trying to 
"run the clock" before one of the three drugs in the state's lethal-injection 
cocktail will expire in June. Prison officials have said the supplier is 
unwilling to sell more drugs to the state, and another supplier hasn't been 
found.

Because of various legal challenges and difficulties in obtaining proper 
execution drugs, Arkansas hasn't executed a prisoner since 2005.

On Oct. 27, 2003, Jackson filed a federal petition citing seven grounds for 
relief from his death sentence.

On Jan. 4, 2007, Wright dismissed the petition, saying Jackson didn't take 
advantage of an opportunity to air his complaints in state court.

But after the 8th Circuit declared in 2010 that Jackson was entitled to pursue 
his federal petition on one of the grounds he cited, mental disability, Wright 
considered written briefs on the matter from Rosenzweig and attorneys for the 
state. She concluded that Jackson hadn't proved a need for an evidentiary 
hearing on the matter and said there was nothing left of the case to consider, 
but Jackson appealed once again to the 8th Circuit.

The appeals court reversed Wright a second time, directing her to hold a 
hearing on whether Jackson's mental impairments entitled him to relief under a 
2002 U.S. Supreme Court decision, Atkins v. Virginia, which held that the 
Eighth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which prohibits cruel and unusual 
punishment, categorically bars the execution of mentally disabled offenders.

At the hearing in late 2011, psychologist James Moneypenny of Little Rock said 
he believed Jackson is mentally disabled. But Gilbert Macvaugh III, former 
chief forensic psychologist at the Mississippi State Hospital, said Jackson 
appeared to be "above the cut of mental retardation." Macvaugh said his 
"clinical" opinion was that Jackson doesn't qualify as intellectually disabled, 
but that he was unable to render a "forensic" opinion on whether Jackson is 
intellectually disabled as defined by Atkins v. Virginia and under Arkansas 
law.

He explained that the standards are "much, much higher" in a forensic setting, 
"and in this case, it's very difficult to offer an opinion to a reasonable 
degree of certainty" about whether Jackson has an intellectual disability.

The U.S. Supreme Court hasn't uniformly defined the term "mental retardation," 
leaving that to the states.

Citing a state law that was in place before the Atkins decision, Wright said 
Thursday that "Jackson has failed to show that he is intellectually disabled 
according to the standard set forth under Arkansas law."

Jackson was first convicted of capital murder in 1990, for the July 31, 1989, 
murder of Charles Colclasure, a 47-year-old Little Rock business owner. 
Colclasure was ambushed at his International Business Forms office in East End 
by robbers who shot him six times, repeatedly ran over him with a vehicle and 
threw him in the Arkansas River. A Pulaski County Circuit Court jury sentenced 
Jackson to life in prison without parole for the attack.

Then in June 1996, Jackson was again convicted of capital murder, and this time 
sentenced to death by lethal injection, for killing prison guard Scott Grimes, 
41, with a homemade knife inside the department's Tucker Unit on Nov. 29, 1995.

Wright's order noted evidence that Jackson plotted to kill an inmate, Anthony 
Griffin, because Griffin had fought with another inmate who shared Jackson's 
faith. The order noted that Jackson "prepared for the deadly attack by removing 
a piece of metal from his cell door, which allowed him to kick the bottom of 
the door open during the short window of time when Griffin was being escorted 
to his cell" after a shower.

"The evidence also showed that Jackson had sharpened his weapon by rubbing it 
on the floor of his cell and that he wrapped the handle with plastic and wore a 
glove during the attack," the order notes.

It said that as Grimes escorted Griffin, Jackson "escaped from his cell at the 
opportune time and ran toward Griffin." Grimes got between the 2 prisoners, and 
Jackson stabbed him twice in the left side of his chest, piercing his heart.

"Gravely injured but alive, Sergeant Grimes held Jackson in a headlock until 
another officer arrived, at which point Sergeant Grimes collapsed and died," 
the order said.

Wright's order noted that under the law, Jackson had the burden of proving by 
the greater weight of evidence that he meets four criteria under Arkansas law 
to be considered intellectually disabled.

While Moneypenny found that Jackson met the criteria, Macvaugh said he believed 
that Jackson "is squarely in the mid borderline of intelligence, and he has 
other issues."

Jackson's ability to plan and prepare for the other prisoner's murder was one 
thing Wright cited in siding with Macvaugh.

While both psychologists were qualified to assess Jackson's intellectual 
status, she said, "the Court believes that Dr. Macvaugh conducted a more 
comprehensive investigation and provided more reliable testimony."

(source: arkansasonline.com)






OKLAHOMA:

Bungled executions slow Oklahoma's busy death chamber


After Oklahoma bungled its last 2 lethal injections and had a third called off 
amid a drug mix-up, executions have grinded to a halt in a state that typically 
has one of the busiest death chambers in the country.

A moratorium on the death penalty is in effect while a multicounty grand jury 
led by Attorney General Scott Pruitt's office investigates how the wrong drug 
was delivered to the Oklahoma State Penitentiary for the last 2 lethal 
injections. 1 inmate was executed in January 2015 with the wrong drug and a 2nd 
man, Richard Glossip, was just moments away from his scheduled injection in 
September when prison officials noticed they received the same wrong drug.

The grand jury, which has been looking into the drug mix-ups since October, 
only meets for a few days each month and is investigating several other 
matters. The panel, which meets behind closed doors, recessed on Thursday 
without issuing a final report of its findings in the execution probe.

"The time allotted this session did not permit the grand jury to complete its 
investigation of the matters heard," the grand jury's foreman wrote in an 
interim report.

The grand jury will resume its investigations April 12, allowing time for 
investigators to summon additional witnesses and gather more physical evidence, 
the report notes. Pruitt has said he will not ask the court to resume 
executions until at least 5 months after the report is made public.

It is the 2nd de facto moratorium on the death penalty in Oklahoma over the 
last 2 years. The 1st came during a Department of Public Safety investigation 
into a botched April 2014 lethal injection that blamed the problems on an 
improperly placed injection needle and poor training.

During the delays, 5 Oklahoma death row inmates exhausted their appeals and are 
awaiting execution dates. The state's new interim prisons director, Joe 
Allbaugh, has said the execution team is continuing to prepare for a lethal 
injection. A bill requested by the state Department of Corrections to allow the 
lethal injection chemicals to be stored at the prison cleared 2 House 
committees last week and could be scheduled for a final vote in the full House.

Since the death penalty was reinstated in the United States in 1976, Oklahoma 
ranks 2nd only to Texas in the number of executions carried out, and has the 
busiest death chamber in the nation based on its population, according to the 
Death Penalty Information Center, which opposes capital punishment.

Meanwhile, former Democratic Gov. Brad Henry announced last week he would help 
lead a panel of experts for an independent review of Oklahoma's entire system 
of capital punishment. Henry will co-chair the panel with former Oklahoma Court 
of Criminal Appeals Judge Reta Strubhar and former U.S. Magistrate Judge Andy 
Lester. That commission is working with The Constitution Project, a Washington, 
D.C.-based nonpartisan research and policy group dedicated to helping solve 
some of the country's most difficult constitutional challenges.

"Oklahoma has an opportunity to lead the nation by being the 1st state to 
conduct extensive research on its entire death penalty process, beginning with 
an arrest that could lead to an execution," Henry said in a statement.

During Henry's 2 terms in office, nearly 50 Oklahoma inmates were put to death, 
but he also granted clemency to at least three convicted killers, commuting 
their death sentences to life in prison without parole.

That commission is expected to issue a report in early 2017.

Online: Senate Bill 884: http://bit.ly/1p1LtVs

(source: KRMG news)

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

Executions grind to halt


After Oklahoma bungled its last 2 lethal injections and had a third called off 
amid a drug mix-up, executions have grinded to a halt in a state that typically 
has one of the busiest death chambers in the country.

A moratorium on the death penalty is in effect while a multicounty grand jury 
led by Attorney General Scott Pruitt's office investigates how the wrong drug 
was delivered to the Oklahoma State Penitentiary for the last 2 lethal 
injections. One inmate was executed in January 2015 with the wrong drug and a 
second man, Richard Glossip, was just moments away from his scheduled injection 
in September when prison officials noticed they received the same wrong drug.

The grand jury, which has been looking into the drug mix-ups since October, 
only meets for a few days each month and is investigating several other 
matters. The panel, which meets behind closed doors, recessed on Thursday 
without issuing a final report of its findings in the execution probe.

"The time allotted this session did not permit the grand jury to complete its 
investigation of the matters heard," the grand jury's foreman wrote in an 
interim report.

The grand jury will resume its investigations April 12, allowing time for 
investigators to summon additional witnesses and gather more physical evidence, 
the report notes. Pruitt has said he will not ask the court to resume 
executions until at least 5 months after the report is made public.

(source: Associted Press)






ARIZONA:

Death Row Diary: The Arizona executions of the LaGrand brothers cause 
international stir


Arizona's most notorious death row inmates past and present have incredible 
stories, including this one that launched the state's largest manhunt.

The execution of the LaGrand brothers in 1999 put Arizona in the international 
spotlight after they were arrested with the help of an inquisitive bank 
employee.

KARL HINZE LaGRAND

Date of Birth: October 20, 1963

Executed: February 24, 1999

WALTER BURNHART LaGRAND

Date of Birth: January 26, 1962

Executed: March 3, 1999

The Crime:

In the morning of January 7, 1982 Walter and Karl LaGrand drove from their home 
in Tucson to Marana, Arizona where they planned to rob the Valley National 
Bank. The brothers had recently been released from prison after a series of 
armed robberies of Tucson supermarkets in 1981.

They arrived in Marana early and drove around town to pass the time. They were 
already in the parking lot when Dawn Lopez arrived for her shift at the bank.

She walked by LaGrand's car when Walter came out of the car and asked her what 
time the bank opened. She told him "10 o'clock." When she went into the bank 
she saw the bank manager, 63-year-old Ken Hardstock, standing next to the bank 
vault with Karl Legrand. Karl was dressed in a coat and tie and was carrying a 
briefcase.

Karl commanded her to sit down as he opened his coat to reveal a gun. This gun 
was later discovered to be a toy pistol.

"If you can't open it this time, let's just waste them and leave"

Walter then entered the bank also and said to Karl, "If you can't open it this 
time, let's just waste them and leave."

There was no way Hardstock could open the vault, because he only had 1/2 of the 
lock combination.

The 2 victims were bound with electrical tape, gagged with bandanas and taken 
to Hardstock's office. Walter put a letter opener to the throat of Hardstock 
and threatened to kill him, because he didn't believe Hardstock's story 
regarding the lock combination. Sensing something wasn't right, she wrote down 
the license plates numbers

Meanwhile, outside the bank, another employee, Wilma Rogers, arrived and saw 2 
strange cars in the parking lot. Sensing something wasn't right, she wrote down 
the license plates numbers and called the bank. The brothers allowed Lopez to 
answer the call. Rogers asked to talk with Hardstock but was told he wasn't 
there, but Rogers had already seen his car in the parking lot.

Rogers told Lopez that her headlights were on, which in fact they were, and if 
she didn't come out to turn them off, she would call police.

The brothers allowed Lopez to go to her car and turn off the lights, but first 
they threatened her by saying, "If you try to go, if you try to leave, we'll 
just shoot him and leave." Lopez complied, as she turned off her headlights and 
returned.

she stood up and broke free from the tape binding her hands

Lopez was again bound by the hands. Soon thereafter, she heard sounds of a 
struggle and fearing that Hardstock was being assaulted, she stood up, broke 
free from the tape binding her hands and went to help him.

Lopez said, this is when Walter LaGrand came up and stopped her by stabbing her 
several times. She fell to the floor and was only able to see Hardstock lying 
down and the shuffling of feet. She did hear 1 of the brothers say," Just make 
sure he's dead."

After the brothers left the bank, Lopez called for help.

When authorities got to the bank, Hardstock was already dead, having been 
stabbed 24 times. Lopez, who was stabbed 6 times, survived her injuries and was 
able to testify against the brothers in court.

Police used the license plates numbers, written down by Wilma Rogers, to track 
down the owner of the car who was the father of Walter LaGrand's girlfriend, 
Karen Libby.

The police descended on the apartment where Libby and the LaGrands were hiding, 
when they left, police arrested them. Police found the briefcase with the toy 
gun, black electrical tape, a red bandana in a desert bush.

After the arrest Karl took responsibility for the stabbings, telling police 
that Walter was out of the room when they happened.

The LaGrand brothers were tried, convicted and on December 14, 1984 sentenced 
to death together.

The Executions:

The last Arizona prisoner to die in the gas chamber was Donald Harding in 1992. 
His 11 minute death was considered so gruesome that Arizona voters demanded 
that condemned prisons sentenced after November 1992 be executed by lethal 
injection.

Those sentenced to death before 1992, like the LaGrands, were given the choice 
of execution by the gas chamber or lethal injection.

Initially both brothers chose the gas chamber, hoping to be spared their lives 
on grounds that it's cruel and unusual punishment. Karl LaGrand was able to 
switch to lethal injection at the last moment. The same offer was given to 
Walter but he refused.

The executions brought international attention to Arizona because the LaGrand 
brothers were German nationals. Germany does not have the death penalty and 
fought to have their citizens spared from death.

(source: ABC news)