[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, GA., FLA., ALA., LA., OHIO, USA

[Rick Halperin]

April 4



TEXAS----new execution date

Execution date set for killer in Houston vice officer's death


A Harris County judge on Monday signed a death warrant for 58-year-old man who 
fatally shot a Houston police officer in 1988.

State District Judge Denise Collins set Sept. 14 as an execution date for 
Robert Mitchell Jennings who was convicted of killing vice officer Elston 
Howard at an adult bookstore.

Howard's mother, 83-year-old Era Mae Howard, watched the proceedings with HPD 
interim chief Martha Montalvo and several other officers.

Before the brief hearing, the 2 women shared a laugh because the octogenarian 
use to babysit Montalvo's children, 1 of whom grew up to be an HPD officer.

Harris County District Attorney Devon Anderson also attended the hearing to see 
the proceedings against Jennings, who appeared in a yellow jail uniform.

Jennings and his co-defendant David Lee Harvell, were robbing their 2nd adult 
bookstore on July 19, 1988 when Jennings went in to one alone on Richmond, 
court records show.

Jennings saw Howard, who was wearing an HPD jacket, arresting the store clerk 
for municipal violations and shot him twice.

Jennings shot the officer a 3rd time after he fell and then robbed the store.

After he fled, Jennings told Harvell he shot a "security guard" and Harvell 
tried to get him out of the car, court records show. When Jennings refused, 
Harvell shot him in the hand.

Harvell was later convicted of aggravated robbery and sentenced to death.

(source: Houston Chronicle)

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

Executions under Greg Abbott, Jan. 21, 2015-present----18

Executions in Texas: Dec. 7, 1982----present-----536

Abbott#--------scheduled execution date-----name------------Tx. #

19---------April 6------------------Pablo Vasquez---------537

20---------May 11-------------------Terry Edwards---------538

21---------June 2-------------------Charles Flores--------539

22---------June 21------------------Robert Roberson-------540

23---------July 14------------------Perry Williams--------541

24---------July 27------------------Rolando Ruiz----------542

25---------August 23----------------Robert Pruett---------543

26---------September 14-------------Robert Jennings-------544

(sources: TDCJ & Rick Halperin)


GEORGIA----impending execution

The Georgia State Board of Pardons and Paroles has set a clemency hearing for a 
death row inmate scheduled to be put to death next week


The board announced Monday that it will hear from advocates for Kenneth Fults 
on April 11. Fults was convicted of killing Cathy Bounds, who was shot 5 times 
in the back of her head. Prosecutors say Fults killed Bounds after breaking 
into her house during a weeklong crime spree in January 1996.

Fults is scheduled to die April 12 by injection of the barbiturate 
pentobarbital at the state prison in Jackson.

The parole board is the only entity in Georgia that can commute a death 
sentence.

Georgia has already executed 3 other inmates this year.

(source: Associated Press)






FLORIDA:

Man who admitted killing his wife and five children by slitting their throats 
should be spared death penalty because of traumatic brain injury, his lawyers 
argue


A Florida man who admitted to killing his wife and 5 children more than 6 years 
ago suffered a traumatic brain injury that should keep him from the death 
penalty, his lawyers now argue.

Mesac Damas, 39, has been in custody since 2009 after he confessed to murdering 
wife Guerline, 32, and children Michzach, 9, Marven, 6, Maven, 5, Megan, 3, and 
11-month-old Morgan.

The 6 victims were found in the family's North Naples home with stab wounds and 
their throats slashed on September 18. Prosecutors are seeking the death 
penalty.

Damas' mental health, in addition to challenges to Florida's death penalty 
laws, have delayed his case going to trial for years.

His competency and mental health could be cited as 'mitigating factors' during 
sentencing that may be significant enough to keep the jury from sending Damas 
to death row, according to Naples Daily News.

James Ermacora, one of Damas' attorneys, would not elaborate on the traumatic 
brain injury but said the claim was made using information from an expert 
report.

The filings claim that Damas has a 'long and documented history of mental 
illness, beginning even in his youth in Haiti'.

It also states that both sides from Damas' family show evidence of 'alcohol 
abuse, spousal abuse, and serious mental illness on both genetic sides'.

The lawyers claim records from hospitals and prisons back up these claims, and 
Ermacora plans to travel to Haiti to obtain more evidence of Damas' history of 
mental illness.

Guerline Damas, who had been married to her husband for 10 years, and her 
children were discovered dead after a family member asked police to conduct a 
welfare check.

Damas' car was found at Miami International Airport, where he had boarded a 
1-way flight to Haiti.

He was found hiding near a hotel in Port-au-Prince and taken into custody by 
the Haitian National Police, according to CNN.

Damas admitted to killing his family to a Naples News reporter, telling him 
'Only God knows' when asked why he did it.

He then blamed the 6 murders on his mother-in-law, saying she 'pretty much made 
me do it - the devil, her spirit, whatever she worships'.

He told the reporter he wanted the jury to immediately send him to death before 
adding that his children and wife were innocent, 'everybody's innocent'.

'Then why, why would you kill them?', the reporter asked.

'The devil,' he responded. 'The devil exists...When I did it my eyes was 
closed, right now my eyes are open.'

When the reporter asked him if he believed he would go to heaven when he died, 
Damas said yes.

'I was gonna kill myself, but I didn't have the courage to do it, because if 
you kill yourself you're not going to heaven,' he said.

'But I didn't have the courage to do it myself.'

Damas said he went to Haiti to say goodbye to his family and claimed he was 
going to turn himself in. He was charged with 6 counts of 1st-degree murder.

In 2014 Damas, who was arrested for battery charges against his wife 5 months 
before her death, was found incompetent to stand trail. He was determined to 
have a 'major mental illness' by doctors.

But in October a judge found that Damas could be 'manipulative and deceitful', 
engaging in 'cooperative behavior when necessary to get something he wanted'.

Collier Circuit Judge Fred Hardt temporarily put Damas' trial on hold in until 
the Supreme Court ruled whether the state's death penalty laws and procedures 
were constitutional.

The Court ruled in January that it was unconstitutional to allow judges to 
reach a different decision regarding death penalties than juries.

The Florida House voted last month for a death penalty bill that requires a 
minimum of 10 out of 12 jurors to recommend the death penalty.

(source: Daily Mail)






ALABAMA:

In grisly murder, judge agrees with jury's call for death penalty


In keeping with a jury's recommendation, Circuit Court Judge Charles Graddick 
sentenced Dennis Hicks to death Monday for murdering and dismembering a man in 
the presence of children.

Wrapping up a 2-hour sentencing hearing for Hicks, Graddick ruled that "there 
can be only one penalty, and that is the penalty of death."

The case began in October 2011, when human remains were found at a west Mobile 
site previously used as a law enforcement shooting range. The body was 
identified as that of 23-year-old Joshua Duncan, a mentally challenged man who 
had been missing for a month. According to investigators, Duncan's body was 
decapitated and disemboweled.

Hicks, then 53, quickly was identified as a person of interest in the case. 
According to a police investigator, he had befriended Duncan at church, and was 
the last person seen with him before his disappearance. At the time, Hicks was 
on parole after serving 25 years for a double murder in Mississippi. In that 
case, according to an MPD investigator, Hicks had shot and stabbed 2 victims, 
then left their bodies in the trunk of a car.

In November 2011, Hicks was arrested for violating his parole, and eventually 
was charged with Duncan's murder. He remained incarcerated through his trial; 
he was convicted of Duncan's murder in late January, and the jury recommended 
the death penalty in early February.

Hicks entered Monday's hearing with a list of objections and motions, arguing 
that the trial should be thrown out on several grounds. His hair now gray, and 
his voice nervous, he attempted to argue that his alibi hadn't been properly 
considered, that evidence had been planted and that his attorneys hadn't 
effectively represented him. "I just don't think they did me right," he said. 
"I was disinformed and lied to by both my counsel."

Because Hicks' objections weren't always formulated in language the court 
understood, Graddick repeatedly asked him to stop the narrative and explain 
exactly what his motion was. In response to one of them, Graddick said, "Let's 
see, I've never done this. I'm denying the motion for me to correct myself." He 
denied all Hicks' motions, except to stipulate that Hicks' attorneys, Glynn 
Davidson and Deborah McGowin, would not represent him on appeal.

For his part, Graddick said that Davidson and McGowin had "done an outstanding 
job for you" and "provided effective assistance," regardless of the outcome. It 
was a view shared by Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Wright, who said 
after the hearing that she was familiar with the defenders and that they were 
"very strong and ethical lawyers" who had done an excellent job under the 
circumstances.

Hicks maintained that he had been helping Duncan learn to live independently by 
renting him a room, letting him work on odd jobs and teaching him to drive. He 
never would have harmed "Josh," he said.

"I'm 100 % innocent," said Hicks, describing the murder and his prosecution as 
"a double tragedy."

As he approached his ruling, Graddick said investigators had found that three 
small children had been present in the residence where Duncan was murdered. 2 
of them had testified to details confirmed in forensic analysis of his body: 
That Duncan had been stabbed and disemboweled, and that his head and hands had 
been cut off.

"It was very horrific," said Wright afterward. "It was horrific we had to put 
the children on the stand."

Given the opportunity to speak to the court and Duncan's family one last time, 
Hicks remained defiant.

"Had I been on the jury, I would have found myself guilty, because this is so 
rigged," he said.

He disdained any half-measures. "Since all y'all think I killed Josh Duncan, 
please sentence me to death," he said, adding that he'd rather face true 
justice in the afterlife. He even asked Graddick to give him the maximum 
sentence on a theft charge related to the case; the judge declined to oblige, 
sentencing him to time served.

Speaking to Duncan's grandmother, Dorothy Duncan, Hicks said, "My Bible tells 
me to forgive. I forgive. I don't hate y'all."

In her own turn to speak, Duncan also referred to the afterworld. "A quick 
death is too good for you. You deserve to live on death row forever," she said. 
"I pray my father gives you the justice you deserve when you are very old."

Dorothy Duncan and other family members did not speak to media after the 
hearing. But in her own remarks to the court, she said that she planned to push 
for a law that would require people with violent crimes on their record to 
notify neighbors, as sex offenders are required to do.

"My Joshua deserves his rights, that he didn't get," she said. "I plan to make 
a 'Justice for Joshua' law. I'm working on it."

Wright said she anticipated that appeals in the case would last "for years to 
come."

(source: al.com)






LOUISIANA:

Moreese Bickham, Freed Death Row Prisoner, Dies at 98


And former death row prisoner Moreese Bickham has died at the age of 98. In 
1958, Bickham, an African American, was sentenced to death for shooting and 
killing 2 police officers in Mandeville, Louisiana, even though Bickham said 
the officers were Klansmen who had come to kill him and shot him on the front 
porch of his own home. Multiple other people in the community also said the 
officers worked with the Ku Klux Klan, which was a common practice in small 
Southern towns. Bickman served 37 years at Angola State Penitentiary, in 
solitary confinement for 23 hours a day. He won 7 stays of execution, but 
Louisiana's governors repeatedly denied him clemency until, under enormous 
pressure, he was finally released in 1996. This is Moreese Bickham speaking on 
WBAI's "Wake Up Call," when co-host Bernard White and I interviewed him in 
1996.

Moreese Bickham: "I know how it feels now to be free. When I was flying over 
the West Coast going to Oakland, I looked down, and I seen all them little 
lights, looked like stars up in heaven. I said I've always been looking up and 
see the stars. I know heaven is up that way. But, Lord, these look like stars 
down there. Is that heaven down there? Some say it can be."

That was Moreese Bickham speaking only days after he was freed. It was Martin 
Luther King Day when we spoke to him on WBAI. He died Sunday night in 
California.

(source: democracynow.org)






OHIO:

Trial launches for suspected Ohio serial killer


The discovery in 2013 of three women's bodies wrapped in garbage bags raised 
fears and drew national attention to the possibility that anotherserial killer 
like Anthony Sowellhad 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 3 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 2nd 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 
4 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 1 count of rape for what prosecutors said was the sexual 
assault of one of his victims. A jury convicted Sowell of 4 counts of rape 
during his aggravated murder trial.

The Cuyahoga County medical examiner determined that two of the three 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.

A woman who described herself as the ex-girlfriend of Michael Madison told CBS 
affiliate WOIOin 2013 that Madison had a fixation with Sowell.

The woman, who asked to remain unidentified, told the station that Madison 
would frequently watch YouTube videos about the Sowell case and cry. She says 
he expressed sympathy for Sowell and disdain for his female victims.

(soruce: CBS news)






USA:

Feds seek anonymous jury, more security in death penalty trial


Federal prosecutors are asking a judge to shield the identities of prospective 
jurors and to order increased security for them in the upcoming death penalty 
trial of an alleged Newark gang member.

Prosecutors Friday made their request to U.S. District Judge Esther Salas, 
arguing that such measures would protect potential jurors while respecting the 
rights of Farad Roland, only the second person to face the death penalty under 
the federal court system in New Jersey.

Roland, alleged to be a co-founder of the South Side Cartel, an arm of the 
Bloods street gang, faces the death penalty for violations of the Racketeer 
Influenced Corrupt Organizations Act, including conspiring in murders, 
robberies, carjackings and drug deals.

At least one of those alleged murders involved another gang member who Roland 
feared would "snitch" on him, prosecutors say in their motion. Prosecutors 
allege Roland, 31, executed 19-year-old Fuquan Billings so that he would not 
report Roland's involvement in other alleged crimes to authorities, the motion 
says.

"Such conduct aimed at interfering with the judicial process warrants an 
anonymous jury," the motion says.

Family members or associates also could disrupt the trial process, it says, 
even with Roland imprisoned.

"Any argument that he himself cannot facilitate jury tampering should be 
rejected and ignores the reality of prior gang cases in this district where 
such interference happened despite the defendant being incarcerated," it said.

Michael K. Bachrach, one of Roland's lawyers, said Roland's defense team will 
file its response opposing the government's motion later this month.

In its motion, the government asks that Salas protect the names, addresses and 
places of work of prospective jurors in the trial, scheduled to begin Dec. 5. 
Their identities would not only be shielded from the parties, but also their 
attorneys and the public, it says.

Jonathan Sander faces three murder charges in the deaths of Sandy Mazzella, 47, 
his wife, Stephenie Ann, 43, and Elaine Toby Mazzella, 76, who was Sandy's 
mother.

It also asks Salas to order that the jury be sequestered during lunch and 
recesses, and that they meet at an undisclosed location daily to be transported 
anonymously to the federal courthouse.

The filing also says that media attention in the case may raise apprehension 
among potential jurors, another reason, it argued, for an anonymous jury.

Not knowing the identities of the jurors will not interfere with the defense 
team's ability to select and reject potential jurors, the filing says - a claim 
supported by George Thomas, a professor of law at Rutgers School of Law-Newark.

"The Sixth Amendment guarantees the right to an impartial jury but as jury 
deliberations are secret, I don't see how anonymity in any way undermines 
objectivity," he said.

The government's motion is not the only item before the court regarding the 
jury in Roland's case.

Later Monday, lawyers for both sides will appear before Salas on a number of 
issues, including Roland's request for a jury pool consisting only of Essex 
County residents. The defense also will be seeking to bar the use of the death 
penalty, claiming it is unconstitutional.

New Jersey abolished the death penalty in 2007. However, capital punishment was 
reinstated in the federal system in 1988.

(source: nj.com)