[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----OHIO, IND., KY., ARK., MO., OKLA.

[Rick Halperin]

April 20



OHIO:

Nathaniel Jackson again asks the Ohio Supreme Court to vacate his death 
sentence


A Trumbull County man facing execution for a 2001 murder of his 
then-girlfriend's ex-husband has again asked the Ohio Supreme Court to vacate 
his death sentence.

It's the 2nd time justices have reviewed the sentence of Nathaniel Jackson, 
whose case was remanded by an appeals court for resentencing after it was 
determined that prosecutors assisted in writing the judge's original opinion.

According to documents, Jackson and Donna Roberts planned the murder of 
57-year-old Robert Fingerhut for months, with an eye toward $550,000 in 
insurance money. Roberts provided Jackson with access to the Howland home she 
and Fingerhut shared, where Jackson shot the victim multiple times.

Both Roberts and Jackson received death penalties but later were ordered to be 
resentenced. Roberts' death sentence has been vacated twice.

Jackson's legal counsel has raised numerous issues with the death sentence, 
urging the state's high court to again vacate the penalty.

During oral arguments Tuesday, Randall Porter, the public defender representing 
Jackson, raised concerns about the resentencing hearing, specifically that the 
judge in the case filed essentially the same opinion in the case.

Porter said the judge was ordered to issue a new opinion, not file a copy of 
the prior one.

"The 2nd opinion is the exact same as the first opinion," he said. "There is 
literally no difference."

Porter asked justices to remand the case to the trial court for another 
resentencing, with orders that the resulting entry be newly written and not 
copied from the early one.

"We're just asking for a clean opinion, an entirely new opinion, be written 
...," he said.

Justices pressed Porter for further explanation of any defects in the 
resentencing opinion; Porter said Jackson was focusing Tuesday on the manner in 
which the opinion was written, not the content.

"I think I understand what you're up to here," said Justice Paul Pfeifer. "You 
want this to go back for a freshly written sentencing opinion by a judge that's 
reading a cold record ... but you don't want to tell us today what's wrong in 
the opinion that we have. You want to wait and let the next judge up read the 
record, re-craft the opinion, and then you want to raise all the issues that 
you believe are wrong, which could be essentially a re-crafting of the language 
... in the next sentencing opinion that we see. We're inviting you to tell us 
if there are things wrong. ... Your objective is to delay, delay, delay; isn't 
that what the game is here?"

Prosecutors countered that the judge in the case wasn't ordered to consider new 
evidence, and the trial court acted properly in resentencing Jackson to death.

Assistant Trumbull County Prosecutor LuWayne Annos said justices earlier found 
that the original sentencing and death penalty were warranted in the case.

(source: Youngstown Vindicator)

**********

Court upholds death sentences for 2 condemned Ohio killers


The Ohio Supreme Court has upheld the death sentences for 2 condemned killers 
in cases out of Toledo and suburban Cleveland.

The execution of either offender is far in the future, because both have 
federal appeals to pursue and Ohio also currently lacks lethal injections drugs 
used for putting inmates to death.

In the Maple Heights case in Cuyahoga County, the court ruled 5-2 Wednesday to 
uphold the death sentence for inmate Denny Obermiller. He was convicted of 
raping and killing his grandmother, Candace Schneider, and killing her husband, 
Donald Schneider, in 2010.

In the Toledo case, the court ruled 6-1 to uphold the death sentence for inmate 
Anthony Belton for fatally shooting gas station clerk Matthew Dugan during a 
2008 robbery.

(source: Associated Press)

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

Attorney asks jury to spare Barberton triple murderer from execution because of 
childhood abuse


An attorney for a man who killed a father and his 2 children during a robbery 
said a jury should spare his client the death penalty because of the severe 
abuse and neglect he suffered as a child.

Eric Hendon, 31, suffered enough abuse to put him in the worst 1% of children, 
defense attorney Brian Pierce said Tuesday during opening statements in the 
mitigation phase of Hendon's trial.

"That this house was filled with chaos and violence is understatement," Pierce 
said.

Hendon was convicted by a jury of killing John Kohler, 42, and his 2 children, 
Ashley Carpenter, 18, and David Kohler Carpenter, 14. He also stabbed and shot 
Kohler's girlfriend, Rhonda Blankenship, in the face. Blankenship survived but 
lost her eye.

The hearing is expected to last 2 days. The jury will remain sequestered until 
jurors agree to recommend a sentence of death, life in prison without parole, 
or life in prison with parole eligibility in 25 or 30 years.

The jury will listen to 6 witnesses brought by the defense team, including 
Loyola University Chicago Professor Jim Garbarino, an expert in the development 
of children who are abused.

Tina Henson, Eric Hendon's oldest sibling, will testify about the conditions of 
the home where they lived as children.

Hendon's mother, Vivian Hendon, was an alcoholic and addicted to drugs. She 
left the children home alone for long stretches. Tina Hendon, at age 10, took 
on the mother role for her 4 younger brothers. The stress made her contemplate 
suicide at age 10, Pierce said.

Summit County Children Services had dozens of investigations into Vivian Hendon 
from 1985 to 2000, none of which ended in the children being permanently 
removed from her custody.

She routinely physically and mentally abused her children, Pierce said. She was 
also sent to prison for a drunken driving crash that killed a passenger in 
1991.

Assistant Summit County Prosecutor Terri Burnside argued that the jury should 
remember that Hendon and his brother, Michael Hendon, planned to rob Kohler.

She also argued that the brutality of the killings and near-killing should 
outweigh any testimony the defense presents.

"He pulled the trigger on this family," Burnside said. "A family he never met 
before."

Prosecutors will not be able to introduce evidence that Michael Hendon was 
convicted at trial and sentenced to life in prison without parole for his role 
in the robbery and shootings. Corrigall Jones ruled he was mentally unfit for 
the death penalty.

They are also prohibited from addressing Eric Hendon's 2000 conviction for 
attacking, raping and shooting a woman between the legs. Eric Hendon served 13 
years in prison for that case.

(source: cleveland.com)






INDIANA:

Juror questionnaires in death penalty case nearly complete


The questionnaires that will be mailed to prospective jurors in the capital 
murder case of a Gary man charged with killing a Gary police Patrolman Jeffrey 
Westerfield in July 2014 are nearly complete.

Lead defense counsel Rich Wolter Jr., who represents Carl Le'Ellis Blount, said 
he and his team have been working with prosecutors in developing the 
questionnaire. Although the process isn't complete, they are close to be 
finished, Wolter said, and appear to be on track to have them ready to go by 
June 1.

Lake Superior Court Judge Samuel Cappas set June 1 as the next hearing in the 
case.

Jury selection is scheduled to begin Jan. 9, 2017, and evidence will be 
presented starting Feb. 6, 2017.

Blount, 27, has pleaded not guilty in the killing of Westerfield, who was shot 
in the head in his police car, which as parked on 26th Avenue near Van Buren 
Street. Westerfield was following up on a domestic disturbance involving Blount 
and his girlfriend in the early morning of July 6, 2014.

(source: Post Tribune)






KENTUCKY:

Prosecutors File Death Penalty Notice In Clark County Shooting

Clark County prosecutors say they plan to seek the death penalty if four 
suspects in a woman's shooting death are convicted at trial.

The Winchester Sun reports prosecutors notified Clark County Circuit Court 
during a status hearing last week.

20-year-old Christopher Robinson is charged with murder, 1st-degree burglary 
and 2 counts of 1st-degree assault in the December 2014 shooting at a 
Winchester apartment complex.

19-year-old Lillian Barnett, 19-year-old Aaron Stailey and 21-year-old Lamont 
Wilkerson are indicted on charges of complicity to murder, burglary and 
assault.

Police say shots were fired when the 4 went to the apartment. A bullet went 
through the floor and into an apartment below, killing 19-year-old Amber 
Caudill.

The defendants are set for trial in May, although a motion is pending to try 
them separately.

(source: lex18.com)






ARKANSAS:

Oral arguments scheduled in Arkansas lethal-injection case


The Arkansas Supreme Court said Monday it will hear oral arguments May 19 in 
the state's appeal of a circuit judge's ruling that the secrecy provision in 
the state's lethal-injection law is unconstitutional.

A group of death-row inmates challenging the law won a ruling from Pulaski 
County Circuit Judge Wendell Griffen in December that a provision requiring 
information about the suppliers of execution drugs to be kept secret is 
unconstitutional.

In its appeal, the state attorney general's office has argued that the state 
has sovereign immunity from the inmates' suit and that the inmates have not 
shown that the secrecy provision or any other part of the law is 
unconstitutional.

A secrecy provision is necessary and has become common in other states, the 
state has argued in a court filing, because of "the recent successful global 
campaign by death-penalty opponents to stop the lethal drug supply by 
subjecting manufacturers and suppliers to threats, hate mail, constant press 
inquiries, lawsuits and other forms of intimidation."

The inmates have argued that the state agreed, as part of a settlement in an 
earlier lawsuit, to disclose information about execution drugs to them; that 
the Arkansas Constitution requires the expenditure of public funds to be made 
public; that the lethal-injection law violates their constitutional right of 
due process and the separation-of-powers doctrine; and that the secrecy 
provision cannot be severed from the rest of the law, so the Supreme Court 
should strike down the entire law.

The state attorney general's office said in a filing Friday, "The prisoners ... 
fail to advance any compelling argument as to why this court should be the 1st 
in the nation to strike down a balanced confidentiality provision that enables 
the state to purchase the drugs necessary to carry out its lawful duty of 
performing judicial executions."

The state also argued that even if the secrecy provision were to be deemed 
unconstitutional, the rest of the law could be enforced and executions could 
still be carried out in the state by lethal injection.

Both sides requested oral arguments in the case.

Arkansas has not executed a prisoner since 2005 because of legal challenges and 
difficulties in obtaining lethal-injection drugs.

(source: swtimes.com)






MISSOURI:

Missouri seeking death penalty in Montgomery County homicide


A hearing for a Mexican national accused of killing a man in Missouri and 4 
others in Kansas is being postponed, with prosecutors planning to seek the 
death penalty in the Missouri case.

Court records show that a Montgomery County judge on Wednesday delayed Pablo 
Serrano-Vitorino's preliminary hearing from April 28 to May 12 at the request 
of Serrano's attorneys. Prosecutors didn't oppose the delay.

The defense motion for the postponement cited conversations with a state 
assistant attorney general "indicating their intention to seek the death 
penalty" in the March 8 death of Randy Nordman at Nordman's home near New 
Florence.

State and local prosecutors are not publicly discussing that case.

Serrano also is accused in Kansas of killing 4 men the night before Nordman was 
slain

(source: fox4kc.org)



OKLAHOMA:

Fallin signs bill allowing execution drug storage at prisons


Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin has signed into law a bill allowing the state 
Department of Corrections to store lethal injection drugs at the Oklahoma State 
Penitentiary.

The law allows the department to obtain federal and state licenses to store 
controlled drugs.

It comes after the wrong drug was delivered for the last 2 lethal injections. 
One inmate was executed in January 2015 with the wrong drug and Richard Glossip 
was moments away from execution in September when prison officials noticed they 
received the same wrong drug.

A moratorium on the death penalty is in effect while a grand jury investigates 
how the wrong drug was delivered.

Republican state Rep. Doug Cox told The Oklahoman (http://bit.ly/1NAhzgy ) that 
intent is to make sure controlled drugs are stored and kept properly in the 
prison system.

(source: Associated Press)