[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----CONN., FLA., N. MEX.

[Rick Halperin]

Aug. 19



CONNECTICUT:

Ex-Connecticut death row inmates transferred to Pennsylvania


2 former death-row inmates convicted of killing a mother and her 2 daughters 
during a 2007 Connecticut home invasion have been transferred to separate 
facilities in Pennsylvania.

Joshua Komisarjevsky and Steven Hayes were convicted in the slayings of 
Jennifer Hawke-Petit and her 2 daughters in a home invasion in Cheshire.

Both were recently resentenced to life in prison without the possibility of 
parole after the Connecticut Supreme Court ruled the death penalty in the state 
was unconstitutional.

State prisons officials gave no reason for the Aug. 16 transfers, other than 
saying it was done as part of an interstate corrections compact for "reasons of 
safety and security." The compact, in effect since 1973, allows for the 
transfers between states.

The state Correction Department says both men will be housed out of state for 
an indefinite period of time.

(source: Associated Press)






FLORIDA:

Prosecutors to seek the death penalty in face-biting attack


The Martin County Sheriff's office says authorities will seek the death penalty 
or life in prison for a 19-year-old college student who detectives say was 
caught biting the face of a man after stabbing him and his wife outside their 
Florida home.

A statement from sheriff's spokeswoman Trisha Kukuvka Friday says Austin 
Harrouff will be charged with 2 counts of 1st-degree murder in the deaths of 
59-year-old John Stevens and his 53-year-old wife, Michelle Mishcon.

He also will be charged with attempted 1st-degree murder in the stabbing of 
their neighbor, Jeff Fisher, who tried to intervene.

Harrouff is still hospitalized and the sheriff has suggested that he won't be 
formally charged until his release, so that his family has to keep paying the 
bills until then.

His attorney, Robert Watson, did not immediately return a call and email 
seeking comment.

(source: Associated Press)






NEW MEXICO:

A Single Police Officer's Killing Is a Terrible Reason to Bring Back the Death 
Penalty----The governor of New Mexico uses emotional response to call for new 
executions.


Gov. MartinezN.M. State GovernmentNew Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez wants to get 
ahead of those using the recent killings of police officers to transform their 
occupation into an "identity" to be protected by hate crime laws.

Exactly 1 officer in New Mexico has died in the line of duty this year - Jose 
Chavez, shot to death during a traffic stop. A fugitive from Ohio has been 
charged with murder in Chavez's death.

Martinez wants to use this death and the recent killing of a child as an excuse 
to restore the death penalty in New Mexico. But she would only want to use the 
death penalty for those who kill cops or children. From a statement to the 
Albuquerque Journal this week:

In a statement Wednesday, the two-term Republican governor told the Journal, "A 
society that fails to adequately protect and defend those who protect all of us 
is a society that will be undone and unsafe.

"People need to ask themselves, if the man who ambushed and killed 5 police 
officers in Dallas had lived, would he deserve the ultimate penalty? How about 
the heartless violent criminals who killed Officer Jose Chavez in Hatch and 
left his children without their brave and selfless dad? Do they deserve the 
ultimate penalty? Absolutely."

Martinez, a former prosecutor, is preparing legislation to introduce next year. 
The Journal notes that she actually already tried to restore the death penalty 
in 2011 and failed, so this is obviously an existing position that's looking 
for a news hook to advance. The Journal also notes that the entire legislature 
is up for election this year, and so the timing of this announcement is clearly 
intended to make this a campaign issue.

So far, overall police deaths while on duty are down when compared to 2015, 
according to the Officer Down Memorial Page, but yes, deaths from gunfire are 
up significantly when compared to last year. In 2015, 39 officers were killed 
by gunfire. We're already at 36 for 2016.

That is, nevertheless, a remarkably small number, and it's absurd to even 
consider the idea of reinstalling a punishment method that has undoubtedly led 
to the government-ordered deaths of innocent people as an emotional response to 
the deaths of a single police officer and an 11-year-old girl.

And even if New Mexico were to restore the death penalty only in the cases of 
the murders of police officers and children, the hate crimes example I 
mentioned up at the top is instructive. Once the state of New Mexico has the 
ability once again to execute people for crimes, there's absolutely no reason 
for anybody to believe that the penalty will stay limited to such a small group 
of offenders. It's unlikely that anybody who pushed forward the concept of hate 
crime laws would envision that they'd be applied based on somebody's occupation 
and more specifically to protect people who themselves have been granted great 
power by the state itself. And yet, here we are.

And libertarians were doing so well with Martinez, too. She, most notably, 
signed last year legislation that implemented the toughest reforms to police 
asset seizure and forfeiture programs in the country, requiring law enforcement 
agencies to actually get convictions for crimes before they could take and keep 
people's assets and property. Not that police are necessarily complying, but 
still.

(source: Scott Shackford, reason.com)