[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----PENN., VA., N.C., GA., FLA., ALA., MISS.

[Rick Halperin]

April 20



PENNSYLVANIA:

Frein hearing delayed after media objections to closed courtroom


A Pike County judge postponed a hearing Tuesday to determine whether or not an 
accused cop killer's confession to state police should be admitted at trial 
after reporters objected to the judge's order forcing news media from the 
courtroom as the court prepared to view a video of the statement.

Eric Matthew Frein, 32, of Canadensis, appeared Tuesday in court to hear 
arguments on several pre-trial motions his attorneys Michael Weinstein and 
William Ruzzo filed Feb. 17.

Frein is accused of killing Cpl. Bryon K. Dickson II and wounding Trooper Alex 
Douglass in an ambush Sept. 12, 2014, outside of the Blooming Grove barracks. 
Frein led local, state and federal law enforcement officers on a 48-day manhunt 
through Pike and Monroe counties.

The defense attorneys want to suppress the statement Frein made after his 
capture because they contend state police violated Frein's Miranda rights 
against self-incrimination with their continued questioning despite Frein's 
refusal to sign a waiver of his rights and his statement to troopers that he 
did not want to discuss "any crime." Frein's attorneys also filed a motion 
asking to dismiss the aggravating circumstances, which makes the case 
potentially eligible for the death penalty, and another challenging the 
constitutionality of the death penalty.

Remarking on widespread media attention, Judge Gregory Chelak, who is presiding 
over the case, cited a rule of criminal procedure giving a judge power to 
govern well-publicized cases to bar members of the news media and general 
public from sitting through Frein's video recorded statement. WNEP-TV reporter 
Jim Hamill formally objected to the exclusion, followed shortly by reporters 
from other news outlets, including The Times-Tribune.

"I don't think it could be used to exclude the press from a hearing," said 
Michael Cosgrove, an attorney for The Times-Tribune, in discussing the rule the 
judge invoked.

Recognizing the media's objections, Chelak postponed the hearing on the 
suppression motion to Friday morning at 9 a.m. and scheduled a hearing for 
Thursday at 3 p.m. to determine if Friday's hearing will be in open or closed 
court.

Frein admitted shortly after his capture that he shot 2 state troopers because 
he wanted to "wake people up," according to state police.

Earlier in the hearing, defense attorneys and District Attorney Ray Tonkin 
sparred over the constitutionality of the death penalty. While the trial court 
can address the issue, Chelak remarked he always believed the state Supreme 
Court should be the body to examine the constitutionality of the death penalty.

(source: citizensvoice.com)

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

Trial to open May 2 in slaying of 2 sisters in Pennsylvania


Trial opens next month for a man charged in the western Pennsylvania robbery 
and murder of 2 sisters of an Iowa state lawmaker 2 years ago.

Jury selection was completed Monday afternoon for the trial of 45-year-old 
Allen Wade in Allegheny County. The proceedings are scheduled to begin May 2.

Authorities allege that Wade, who lived next door, killed Sarah Wolfe after she 
returned home to find Susan Wolfe already slain in February 2014. The women 
were the sisters of Democratic Iowa state Rep. Mary Wolfe.

Prosecutors have said that they intend to seek the death penalty if Wade is 
convicted of 1st-degree murder.

At the request of defense attorneys, Judge Edward Borkowski issued a gag order 
barring lawyers or investigators from talking about the case outside of court.

(source: WTAE news)






VIRGINIA:

Attorney General Herring: McAuliffe death penalty secrecy plan is legal


Faced with a pressing deadline, Attorney General Mark Herring issued an opinion 
Tuesday night potentially clearing the way for lawmakers to accept Gov. Terry 
McAuliffe's proposal for a secret drug protocol in lethal injections.

Herring said Virginia could legally obtain necessary drugs through compounding 
pharmacies under a process that must be kept secret, and that the secrecy 
requirement would not violate the rights of a condemned prisoner.

Herring issued the 13-page opinion in response to questions from lawmakers of 
both parties following McAuliffe's April 11 announcement.

"This was an extraordinarily expedited turnaround based on the timing of the 
reconvened session, and as you'll see it was a rather large and expansive 
inquiry," Herring spokesman Michael Kelly emailed reporters late Tuesday night.

Herring and McAuliffe are both Democrats who support the death penalty. 
McAuliffe will face some opposition Wednesday from his own party when lawmakers 
debate the proposal. Democratic Sen. Scott Surovell of Fairfax County and Del. 
Marcus Simon of Falls Church both oppose the death penalty and were 2 of the 3 
lawmakers who asked for legal opinions from Herring.

Surovell said in an email that he wasn't surprised by Herring's opinion.

"The Attorney General's Office has been guiding the Department of Corrections 
conduct for decades and if he had opined differently, he would expose the state 
and multiple employees to significant criminal and civil liability," he said. 
He added: "There is no urgent need for the legislature to act this session. We 
could easily continue a dialogue over the next year to determine whether 
Virginia wants to continue this practice and if so, whether it is possible to 
do it humanely and legally."

At issue, state officials say, is that the Department of Corrections is out or 
almost out of the drugs needed to carry out a lethal injection. And the 
companies that manufacture the drugs do not want to be publicly tied to 
executions.

Republican Del. Jackson Miller of Manassas introduced HB815 this year, which 
would mandate that if the Department of Corrections tries to find the necessary 
drugs for an injection but cannot, the electric chair must be used. Currently, 
inmates on death row choose between injection or the chair.

McAuliffe pushed the drug secrecy idea in 2015 but it was defeated in the House 
of Delegates.

This year, he reworked Miller's bill to draft a similar proposal - which the 
legislature must approve to go in place. McAuliffe said his plan is better than 
a requirement that the electric chair be used, and allows Virginia to keep its 
death penalty policy in place.

Miller requested a legal opinion from Herring on whether any state or federal 
law would prohibit Virginia from adopting McAuliffe's plan.

"The death penalty is reserved for the most heinous crimes committed by the 
most heinous individuals," Miller said in a statement Friday. "It is a 
necessary and integral part of our criminal justice system. While it is not 
perfect, I am predisposed to accept the Governor's amendment because it would 
ensure justice for the victims of those sentenced to die by a jury of their 
peers."

The House and Senate convene at noon to consider the plan and other amendments 
and vetoes made by McAuliffe.

(source: The Virginian-Pilot)






NORTH CAROLINA:

North Carolina Mulls Requiring Prosecutors to Share Exonerating Evidence Even 
After Conviction


North Carolina is considering adopting a rule that would require prosecutors to 
hand over credible evidence that proves an inmate's innocence after trial or 
seriously calls into question a conviction. Only 13 states currently have the 
post-conviction policy in place. North Carolina is not yet one of them, but 
some activists, attorneys, and exonerees are trying to change that.

"If prosecutors have an ethical duty to avoid wrongful convictions, then they 
should have some sort of ethical duty to remedy wrongful convictions," said 
attorney Brad Bannon of the North Carolina State Bar's ethics committee. Bannon 
is part of a group of individuals calling on North Carolina to adopt the rule, 
which the American Bar Association also recommends.

One case from North Carolina's past that highlights the need for such a rule 
involved the 2000 home invasion and murder in Buncombe County, which led 5 men, 
including Robert Wilcoxson and Kenneth Kagonyera, to plead guilty out of 
pressure to avoid the death penalty. Wilcoxson and Kagonyera have both since 
been exonerated. Many, including the presiding judge in the exoneration, 
indicated that the district attorney who prosecuted the case, Ron Moore, and 
the sheriff's office knew about post-conviction evidence that could have 
exonerated Wilcoxson and Kagonyera but did nothing. (1 of the 5 men confessed 
and implicated another accomplice. DNA evidence confirmed that the accomplice 
was involved, but both Wilcoxson's and Kagonyera's DNA were absent, and neither 
was informed.)

"There is no evidence in the file that any action was taken in regards to this 
confession other than providing it in discovery" to the one man whose DNA had 
been identified, wrote the North Carolina Innocence Inquiry Commission in a 
brief. The commission is an independent agency set up in 2006 to review claims 
of wrongful convictions. North Carolina was the 1st state to establish such a 
commission.

"There's a lot to be said for agencies like the NCIIC - but there are no other 
agencies like the NCIIC in the United States," said the National Registry of 
Wrongful Convictions in its 2015 report. "To create one would require 
legislative action and substantial funding by a legislature and a governor. 
Outside North Carolina, no state has been interested."

Moore has since retired as district attorney, and the sheriff at the time, 
Bobby Lee Medford, is serving a 15-year federal sentence for misconduct in 
another case, which also resulted in a wrongful conviction.

It's hard to believe that a rule like this isn't in place everywhere, or that 
any competent prosecutor with good intentions would not reveal evidence in hand 
that indicated the wrong person was convicted. Wilcoxson, who was convicted for 
the 2000 home invasion, served 9 years, and was ultimately exonerated in 2011, 
said prosecutors should be ethical and proactive, regardless of whether there's 
a rule mandating it.

"It's your professional duty to correct a wrong when you've got the power to do 
it," he said. "Your standard has got to be higher than the average person."

For the past 2 years, North Carolina has been among the top 10 states with the 
most exonerations. According to the National Registry of Exonerations, in 2014, 
North Carolina had four exonerations and, in 2015 it saw 5. In 2014, 2 of the 
exonerations were for inmates sitting on death row. While the NCIIC and other 
innocence agencies and nonprofits across the country are attempting to wrong 
rights, prosecutorial and police misconduct is a persistent and systematic 
stumbling block.

(source: NonProfit Quarterly)






GEORGIA----impending execution

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


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

The board announced Tuesday that it will hear from advocates for Daniel Anthony 
Lucas on April 26. The board is the only entity in Georgia that can commute a 
death sentence.

Lucas, who is 37, was convicted in 1999 for the deaths of 37-year-old Steven 
Moss, his 11-year-old son Bryan and 15-year-old daughter Kristin, who 
interrupted a burglary at their home near Macon in central Georgia.

Another man convicted in the murders, Brandon Joseph Rhode, was executed in 
2010.

Lucas is scheduled to die April 27 by injection of the barbiturate 
pentobarbital at the state prison in Jackson.

Georgia has already executed 4 other inmates this year.

(source: Associated Press)






FLORIDA:

Attorney for murder suspect wants information about slain brothers


An attorney defending a man facing the death penalty plans to continue his 
pursuit of getting the school records of 2 brothers killed on Labor Day at 
their family's business.

School attorneys, and those representing the victims' parents, say the release 
of the records would violate the privacy of Khasem Yousef, 23, and Farres 
Yousef, 17, who died after a gunman killed them Sept. 7 at the Snappy 
convenience store in Palmetto.

Assistant Public Defender Franklin Roberts said he needs the records to prepare 
his defense strategy for accused killer Devin Breon Chandler, 25, and, perhaps, 
be able to rebut evidence prosecutors present about the victims.

In an order written earlier this month, Circuit Judge Diana Moreland denied 
Roberts' request for the records. She did not cite privacy, though; instead, 
she said Roberts did not use the proper procedure to get access to the records.

"Although the Court respects the victims' family's right to privacy regarding 
the victims' school records, that right is most likely outweighed by the 
Defendant's right to due process in this matter," Moreland wrote in her order.

School attorneys are preparing to argue their case again, saying records are 
confidential.

Roberts said he intends to file the required notice that he plans to send 
subpoenas for the records. In his first attempt, he did not file the notice and 
sent subpoenas directly to State College of Florida and the Manatee County 
School District.

"We don't want it to be seen as an attempt to harass anyone, because that's not 
what we're doing," Roberts said Monday.

In Florida, prosecutors can use victim impact statements to show the uniqueness 
of an individual, but the information is not supposed to be taken into 
consideration by a jury of whether or not to pursue the death penalty, he said.

"My point is, if we're going to allow that, you have to give the defense an 
opportunity to understand the victims, and one way to do that is through 
records," Roberts said.

Khasem Yousef attended State College of Florida, and his brother, Farres, 
attended Manatee High School.

Roberts also requested copies of Chandler's complete school records from the 
school district.

The Manatee County School District argued that releasing the records violated 
privacy rights as dictated by the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act and 
also noted Roberts improperly served the subpoenas.

"A decision like this by the court brings general awareness for those seeking 
records under FERPA," school district staff attorney Mitchell Teitelbaum said. 
"There is a strict requirement to protect student privacy."

State College of Florida attorney Steve Prouty wanted a written court order 
before producing any documents to avoid violating FERPA and potentially risking 
loss of federal funding for the college, the judge's ruling noted.

The victims' parents, Buthania and Raed Yousef, were represented by Council on 
American-Islamic Relations Florida attorneys Katherine Heffner and Thania 
Diaz-Clevenger, who filed a motion to quash Roberts' subpoenas for the records.

There are other questions, Roberts said, including whether privacy rights 
extend beyond one's lifetime and if parents can claim privacy rights for their 
older son, who was an adult when he died.

Roberts said he has indicated to the prosecution that Chandler is willing to 
enter into a plea agreement, but prosecutors continue to seek the death penalty 
for 2 counts of murder in the 1st degree. Chandler also was charged with 
robbery using a firearm.

Chandler received a 3-year prison sentence for a robbery in March 2009; he was 
released in September 2011, according to Florida Department of Corrections 
records.

"Hopefully, we will be able to make a presentation that Mr. Chandler should not 
be put to death," he said.

(source: Bradenton Herald-Tribune)






ALABAMA----new execution date

Alabama Supreme Court sets execution date for death row inmate


The Alabama Supreme Court has set a May execution date for a man convicted of 
shooting a Mobile police officer in the back of the head 30 years ago.

The court set the May 12 execution date for Vernon Madison after the Alabama 
attorney general's office said Madison had exhausted his appeals. A federal 
judge in Alabama last week rejected another Alabama death row inmate's claim 
that the state's lethal injection process is cruel and unusual punishment.

Madison was convicted of killing Mobile police Officer Julius Schulte in 1985. 
Schulte had responded to a domestic dispute involving Madison. Lawyers for the 
attorney general's office said that the trial evidence clearly showed Madison 
crept up and shot Schulte in the back of the head as he sat in his police car.

However, lawyers wrote in court papers opposing the state's request for an 
execution date that Madison has been mentally incapacitated by strokes and 
untreated mental illness characterized by paranoid delusions.

"Mr. Madison is no longer meaningfully communicating with counsel. He struggles 
to understand simple information," lawyers with the Equal Justice Initiative 
wrote in the court filing submitted earlier this year.

Lawyers for the state, in a court filing, argued that Madison never raised the 
issue of competence until the state sought an execution date.

"The fact that he waited three weeks after such petition to raise this 
challenge strongly suggests that his action is brought solely for delay," 
lawyers for the state wrote.

Alabama is seeking to resume executions after a more than two-year lull as the 
state faced a scarcity of lethal injection drugs and ongoing litigation over 
the death penalty.

The state executed Christopher Eugene Brooks in January for the 1993 rape and 
beating death of a woman. It was the state's 1st execution since 2013.

A federal judge in Alabama last week rejected arguments from death row inmate 
Tommy Arthur that Alabama's lethal injection process violated his 
constitutional rights of equal protection under the law. Lawyers for Arthur had 
argued, among other things, that the state prison system did not consistently 
perform a pinch test to check for consciousness before administering the fatal 
drugs.

U.S. District Judge Keith Watkins wrote in the April 15 opinion that Arthur had 
not met his burden of proof and pointed to January trial testimony of past 
execution witnesses.

"The credible testimony ... establishes that the pinch test has been applied 
uniformly during executions; simply put, Arthur has not established past 
disparate treatment or the likelihood of disparate treatment in his own 
execution," Watkins wrote.

Arthur was convicted of the 1982 murder-for-hire of a Muscle Shoals man.

Watkins said that another legal claim of Arthur's - that involving the 
interplay of the lethal injection drugs and his medical conditions- had yet to 
be resolved. Watkins said that would be addressed later.

(source: Associated Press)

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

Convicted murderer of 91-year-old woman to be sentenced to life in prison or 
death penalty


On Wednesday afternoon the man found guilty of capital murder for breaking into 
a 91-year-old woman's home before strangling her to death in 2011 will finally 
learn his fate. John Clayton Owens Jr. will be sentenced to either life in 
prison or the death penalty.

A Madison County judge is expected to make that decision at 1:30 p.m., a little 
more than two months after Owens was found guilty of capital murder for the 
death of Doris Richardson at her home in Huntsville's Five Points area in 
August of 2011.

Authorities say the victim's daughter found her mother with pillow over her 
face hours after Owens ransacked the home and strangled Richardson.

The Alabama Supreme Court rejected a request by Owens' lawyers to rule the 
state's death penalty system unconstitutional.

(source: WAFF news)






MISSISSIPPI:

Executioners, drug suppliers to be secret in Miss.


A legal veil of secrecy could drop over much of the execution process in 
Mississippi under a bill agreed on by House and Senate negotiators.

Both bodies passed Senate Bill 2237 on Tuesday, sending it to Gov. Phil Bryant 
for his approval or veto.

The measure says names of prison employees at an execution and in-state 
providers of lethal drugs must remain secret. The bill also makes secret the 
names of execution witnesses who are members of a victim???s or condemned 
inmate's family. However, negotiators removed a provision barring anyone, 
including news reporters, from discussing those names or allowing civil 
lawsuits over disclosures of secrets. The Mississippi Press Association and 
others had opposed earlier versions of the bill as an unconstitutional 
restraint.

House and Senate negotiators also stripped out a provision proposed by the 
House that would have allowed the state to execute prisoners using a firing 
squad.

Mississippi is one of a number of states that has passed such secrecy bills, as 
death penalty opponents have sought to stymie lethal injections by exposing 
drug-makers and pharmacies that supply drugs.

The Mississippi Supreme Court heard arguments in November, but hasn't ruled, on 
a lawsuit that seeks to compel the Mississippi Department of Corrections to 
disclose information about its execution procedure and the supplier of 
execution drugs. A lower court judge ruled for disclosure in March, but the 
information has remained secret during appeals.

Attorney General Jim Hood has said prison employees have refused to work on the 
execution team because of fears about retaliation. He's also said pharmacies 
should be free from "strong-arm tactics" by death penalty opponents.

Jim Craig, a lawyer for 2 death row inmates who filed the lawsuit, disputes 
claims that any person or business has been threatened. The state has 
introduced no specific evidence of threats in court.

(source: Associated Press)