[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, DEL., GA., FLA., OHIO

[Rick Halperin]

Dec. 4




TEXAS:

3 teens charged with capital murder in death of 4-year-old Texas girl


3 people have been charged with capital murder in the shooting death of 
4-year-old Ava Castillo.

3 teenagers have been charged with capital murder in the death of a 4-year-old 
Texas girl, authorities announced Friday.

The Harris County Sheriff's Office identified the suspects as Marco Miller, 17, 
Philip Battles, 18, and Ferrell Dardar, 17.

Miller and Dardar did not appear in court as expected Friday night, but a 
prosecutor revealed that an anonymous tip first led investigators to Battles, 
also known as "Peewee." She said Battles implicated Miller and Dardar.

"They're just cowards, cowards," Julie Gomez, the victim's aunt, told KTRK.

Ava Castillo was gunned down Nov. 14 during a robbery in the parking lot of the 
apartment complex where she lived. Her mother was shot and wounded 7 times, and 
her 10-year-old sister was grazed by a bullet.

"I'm sorry I wasn't there to protect you like I wish I could," Diana Gomez, 
Ava's mother, said in an exclusive interview Tuesday.

Investigators said the suspects are part of a crew responsible for a number of 
other violent crimes that are still under investigation.

Battles is also charged with capital murder in the death of 62-year-old Ignacio 
Ortega. Dardar was out on bond for 3 counts of aggravated robbery when Ava was 
killed. Miller has no prior record.

The Harris County District Attorney's Office decide whether to pursue the death 
penalty in the case.

"I'm for the death penalty, but that's too easy. That's too easy. You put a dog 
to sleep," said Julie Gomez. "They don't deserve that. I want them to live 
their miserable lives in jail for the rest of their lives."

The 3 suspects were being held in jail without bond.

(source: ABC news)






DELAWARE:

Death row legality case to be heard Wednesday


The Delaware Supreme Court will hear a case Wednesday that could decide the 
fate of the 13 men currently on the state's death row.

In August, the court threw out the death penalty, ruling a portion of it was 
unconstitutional. However, the justices did not issue a ruling on whether the 
decision was retroactive, meaning the individuals already sentenced to death 
still face execution.

In October, lawyers for convicted murderer Derrick Powell submitted a brief 
arguing the ruling should apply to Powell and the other 12 men awaiting death, 
bringing the issue to the forefront.

While the case is superficially focused on Powell, who killed Georgetown police 
officer Chad Spicer in 2009 and was sentenced to death 2 years later, it could 
reverberate well beyond him.

A broad decision could change sentences for those already on death row to life 
in prison or it could affirm their convictions.

The Supreme Court will hear arguments from Powell's lawyers and the Department 
of Justice Wednesday at 10.

August's ruling came about, justices said, because the Delaware death penalty 
violated the Sixth Amendment, which guarantees right to a trial by jury. The 
law did not require the jury to rule unanimously on whether aggravating 
circumstances outweighed mitigating factors and gave the judge final discretion 
to sentence death.

Because the unconstitutional provision was so intertwined with the rest of the 
law, justices were "unable to discern a method by which to parse the statute so 
as to preserve it," Chief Justice Leo Strine wrote in the landmark August 
ruling, with Justices Randy Holland and Collins Seitz concurring.

In court filings, Powell's lawyers said the August ruling should apply to the 
inmate. Any other decision, wrote Patrick Collins and Natalie Woloshin, would 
be "a ratification of a 40-year misstep that is anathema to our understanding 
of the Sixth Amendment."

"If Derrick Powell is executed, it will be because he had the misfortune to be 
sentenced during a period of constitutional jurisprudence that has now been 
recognized as misguided, and corrected," the lawyers wrote.

The Department of Justice, contrast, argued the August ruling is a "procedural, 
not substantive, change" and noted the death penalty itself was not found 
unconstitutional.

"'No one, not criminal defendants, not the judicial system, not society as a 
whole is benefited by a judgment providing that a man shall tentatively go to 
jail today, but tomorrow and every day thereafter his continued incarceration 
shall be subject to fresh litigation,'" wrote Chief of Appeals Elizabeth R. 
McFarlan and Deputy Attorney General John R. Williams, quoting U.S. Supreme 
Court Associate Justice John Marshall Harlan II.

5 separate briefs have been submitted by organizations or individuals 
supporting Powell's claims. Among those filing the briefs are lawyers for 
former death row inmate Luis Cabrera, whose death sentence was overturned in 
June 2015. Appeals in the case have been stayed while Powell is deliberated.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Delaware and the ACLU Capital Punishment 
Project submitted a brief together, arguing the Constitution???s protection 
against cruel and unusual punishment prevents discipline that goes against the 
"'evolving standards of decency that mark the progress of a maturing society.'"

The state disputes the briefs in a reply sent to the court last month, writing 
that "changing the state's retroactivity standards will affect not only the 
Delaware death row inmates, but potentially all Delaware inmates who may file 
an untimely subsequent motion for state postconviction relief."

Regardless of the court's ruling, however, that decision could soon become 
moot. Fifteen Republican lawmakers announced in August they intend to bring 
legislation to reinstate the death penalty.

The House of Representatives voted down a repeal attempt last year, but the 
Senate may have the votes to block a bill bringing back capital punishment. 
While senators passed legislation abolishing the death penalty in each of the 
past 2 sessions - including with the bare minimum of 11 votes in 2014 - the 
makeup of the chamber has changed slightly.

Sen. Jack Walsh, a Stanton Democrat who is replacing repeal champion Karen 
Peterson, said Friday he will vote against reinstating capital punishment. 
Fellow new Sen. Anthony Delcollo, R-Elsmere, said he would support such a bill 
only if it is well-written and addresses the concerns raised by the Supreme 
Court.

Sen. Delcollo replaces repeal supporter Patricia Blevins, a Democrat.

Sen. Bethany Hall-Long, D-Middletown, voted against abolishing the death 
penalty but has since changed her mind. However, she will be giving up her seat 
in January to become lieutenant governor, meaning the ensuing special election 
could determine which side gets the needed 11 votes.

Gov.-elect John Carney, a Democrat, said in October he would "probably" veto 
legislation reinstating capital punishment.

The state last performed an execution in 2012.

The arguments can be viewed live Wednesday at 
https://livestream.com/DelawareSupremeCourt.

(source: delawarelstatenews.net)






GEORGIA----impending execution

Death row inmate's lawyers to Parole Board: Juror was biased


Lawyers for a death row inmate who is slated to be executed Tuesday will ask 
the State Board of Pardons and Paroles to do something Monday that the courts 
have declined to do: look at juror bias.

Specifically, 1 juror allegedly lied about a history that most likely would 
have disqualified her from sitting on the panel that ultimately condemned 
William Sallie.

"We do not excuse or justify the damage that Mr. Sallie's violent spree caused, 
fueled by the irrationality that we often see in the emotional turmoil of 
divorce and custody proceedings," Sallie's lawyers wrote in his clemency 
petition.

"The determination of a death sentence must occur only with the most pristine 
and careful proceedings uncorrupted by bias and dishonesty," the petition said. 
"That simply did not happen here."

Sallie, 50, is scheduled to be the 9th person executed in Georgia in 2016, more 
than any other state this year and more than in any other year in Georgia since 
the current death penalty law was adopted in 1973.

His lawyers will meet with the Parole Board on Monday morning, and in the 
afternoon the 5-member board will hear from those who want Sallie's lethal 
injection carried out.

Sallie was convicted in Bacon County of murdering his father-in-law John Moore 
in 1990, shooting and wounding his mother-in-law Linda Moore, and kidnapping 
his estranged wife and her sister.

Sallie broke into his in-laws' home - where his wife, Robin, and their 
2-year-old son, Ryan, were sleeping - after he lost a custody battle and his 
wife filed for divorce.

Sallie's lawyers wrote in the clemency petition and in a series of court 
filings that the domestic turmoil in William and Robin Sallie's lives was much 
like that lived by a juror who denied ever being part of a volatile marriage, 
custody dispute or relationship that included domestic violence.

24 pages of the 31-page clemency petition are devoted to the young life of that 
juror and her 4 marriages. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution is not naming the 
juror because she could not be reached for comment.

When the woman was questioned during jury selection for the Sallie murder 
trial, she said her marriages had ended amicably with "no big court fights" and 
without a "big custody fight or issue."

That's false, Sallie's lawyers argue in the clemency petition, which says the 
juror fought with soon-to-be ex-husbands over child custody and support 
payments and lived with domestic abuse.

The petition further says the judge who presided over Sallie's trial also 
handled 3 of the juror's 4 divorces that were marked by hostilities, 
allegations of lying to the court, and multiple court filings.

"The truth of the matter ... is (the juror) had a checkered and tumultuous 
marriage, divorce and child custody history, including competing divorce and 
custody proceedings as in Mr. Sallie's case. If only she had been honest during 
jury selection, she would ... never have been on a jury that decided the fate 
of someone who she would see as merely the embodiment of her former husbands 
and the wrongs they had committed to her," the clemency petition states. "But 
because she lied, no one knew."

The juror told an investigator for Sallie's lawyers that she pressured six 
other jury members who initially wanted to sentence Sallie to life until they 
agreed to a death sentence, making the jury's decision unanimous.

"I pushed it," the juror said, according to an affidavit attached to Sallie's 
clemency petition. "I said that the laws can change and he could be set free 
and I won't pay taxes to let him sit in jail. They tried to push that he found 
God in prison, but what person in prison hasn't. I made a wise decision on 
this," the juror said, according to the affidavit.

Sallie's lawyers also questioned the juror's judgment because she and a married 
male juror allegedly left the trial, after being sequestered, and went to her 
house. Several days after the trial ended, a deputy went to the female juror's 
house to tell the male juror that his wife was looking for him.

None of those matters have been considered by an appellate court because, court 
filings and the petition said, Sallie's lawyers missed a crucial deadline by a 
few days.

"Due to a technicality, a missed statute of limitations deadline at a time when 
Mr. Sallie was unrepresented by counsel and had no right to appointed counsel, 
no court has ever heard evidence regarding this juror('s) misconduct and 
dishonesty," the clemency petition said.

But prosecutors contend there is no legal basis for reopening Sallie's case 
after deadlines have expired. The courts, so far, have agreed.

(source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution)






FLORIDA:

Prosecutors could seek death for Theodore


State prosecutors will seek the death penalty in the trial of Christian 
Theodore, who is charged with murder and armed robbery in connection with the 
home invasion death of Jonathan Jeffery on Dec. 14, 2014.

Theodore's trial for 1st-degree murder begins with jury selection Dec. 12, 
nearly 2 years to the day Jeffery, 25, was killed in front of his wife, Brandi 
Jeffery, with a single shot to the head.

The death penalty has been in limbo since January, when the U.S. Supreme Court 
ruled Florida's death penalty law, which required 7 jurors to approve death and 
left the final decision up to the judge, was unconstitutional.

In March, the Florida Legislature approved a measure that increased the number 
of jurors needed to approve death to 10, allowing juries the final decision to 
impose capital punishment.

Seven months later, the Florida Supreme Court once again nixed the death 
penalty law in a 5-2 vote because it did not require juries to come to a 
unanimous decision. The U.S. Supreme Court and state ruling overturned the new 
measure based on a case brought by convicted murderer, Timothy Lee Hurst.

Since the law was struck down Oct. 14, the Legislature has been in recess and 
unable to update language in the death penalty law to reflects the state 
court's ruling. Lawmakers are back in session on March 7.

"The death penalty is in a state of flux right now,' Assistant State Attorney 
Karen Fraivillig said. "Right now, the death penalty for all intents and 
purposes is on hold. It's still constitutional."

Speedy trial demand

Theodore, who has been jailed since Jan. 5, 2015, has demanded a speedy trial.

He is 1 of 5 people charged in the death of Jeffery, who was asleep in a 
bedroom with his wife, Brandi Jeffery, when 4 men crashed through a glass lanai 
at around 5:34 a.m. Dec. 14, 2014, and entered their apartment.

The men allegedly ordered the couple to lay on their stomachs and zip tied 
their hands behind their backs. The men then ransacked the house demanding to 
know "where it is...," according to Brandi Jeffery. Jonathan Jeffery directed 
them to a closet where a backpack with drugs and money was hidden.

In addition to the backpack, the men took cell phones and an Xbox.

Brandi Jeffery later told deputies during an interview her husband had started 
dealing drugs because they were struggling financially.

The Jeffery's 17-month-old daughter was asleep in another bedroom and their 
niece and nephew - 12-year-old twins - were lying on a couch. None of them were 
harmed.

Brandi Jeffery said one of the men holding a gun to her husband's head fired a 
single shot that killed him. The men left through the broken lanai.

Shakoy Gale, 23, Aenri Ellis, 29, and Byron Jones, 27, have all been found 
guilty of murder and related charges. They were each sentenced to life in 
prison without the possibility of parole.

2 others, Azalea Mendoza, 21, and Vincent Gonzalez, 27, pleaded no contest to 
lesser charges and have agreed to testify against Theodore in the upcoming 
trial. Mendoza is the mother to Theodore's 2 children.

Mendoza was charged with accessory to murder and was sentenced to 10 years in 
prison, while Gonzalez was given 28 years for 2nd-degree murder.

Waiting on lawmakers

Fraivillig said Theodore could be charged on the "guilt phase," but if he is 
convicted the courts must wait for the Legislature to bring the current death 
penalty law up to date before they can sentence him.

"We would have to pick an all new jury who never heard the facts and re-educate 
them," Fraivillig said. "It leaves the state at a disadvantage."

For years, the Florida Legislature has been warned that the state's death 
penalty statue was unconstitutional, and now the courts have taken it out of 
lawmakers' hands, said Michael Barfield, a Sarasota paralegal and vice 
president of the Florida American Civil Liberties Union.

"We require a unanimous jury in every other situation short of death," Barfield 
said. "It is required now, but why we didn't require it for death penalty, 
which is the ultimate penalty, has always been a mystery to us."

Barfield called the state court's latest ruling on the death penalty almost a 
final blow to executions in Florida.

"It would seem to me that it would be unwise to proceed with a capital trial 
under the current framework the Supreme Court has ruled unconstitutional if the 
case isn't scheduled to conclude before the end of the legislative session.

"I do believe death penalty is broken. We should just end it once and for all 
and stop wasting our resources," he said.

(source: The Herald-Tribune)

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

Changing the rules on Florida's death row, 1 prisoner at a time


3 times, the killer has been sentenced to die for the same murder.

At his 1st sentencing, in 1993, he mocked the family of his victim by giving 
them a thumbs-up sign.

The 2nd time, in 1997, he took a swing at a bailiff and was hog-tied as he was 
carried back to his cell.

The 3rd time, in 2004, he barely seemed to notice that the judge had spoken.

And now, there is at least a reasonable chance that Troy Merck could get a 4th 
shot at avoiding the death penalty. At least that seems to be the direction 
death row cases are heading in Florida.

It won't matter that the facts of the case are not in dispute. It won't matter 
that the judge called the crime "outrageously wicked" or that the victim was a 
brand new father. And it won't matter that three different juries have looked 
Merck in the eye and recommended a death sentence.

"He has never shown any remorse at all,'' said C.J. Cheek, the mother of James 
Newton, who was stabbed 13 times by Merck in the parking lot of a St. 
Petersburg nightclub in 1991. "It's frustrating that we could go through this a 
fourth time.''

Merck's 1st 2 reversals were due to specific procedural questions.

This time, he has gotten a huge assist from the U.S. Supreme Court. And he's 
not alone. Hundreds of death row inmates in Florida could soon be looking at 
new sentences.

The possibility was created when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled earlier this year 
(Hurst vs. Florida) that a death sentence required a unanimous jury 
recommendation.

As if on cue, the Florida Supreme Court has overturned 3 death sentences in the 
past 6 weeks while citing the lack of a unanimous jury verdict.

"I think it's clear that unanimity is going to govern this moving forward,'' 
said Pinellas-Pasco Public Defender Bob Dillinger. "If you do not have a 
unanimous jury recommendation, we're going to be re-litigating that case.''

So what does that mean?

Based on research, it looks like 2 out of every 3 death row cases in Tampa Bay 
could potentially be overturned. Of the 55 inmates from Pinellas, Hillsborough, 
Pasco and Hernando counties currently sentenced to death, 36 had majority, but 
not unanimous, jury recommendations.

That means 3 dozen potential appeals and re-sentencing hearings. That means 
renewed anguish for the families of victims. That means increased costs in 
public court proceedings.

And it likely means far fewer residents on death row because prosecutors could 
accept life-without-parole sentences on cases where a unanimous recommendation 
of death is in doubt.

Pinellas-Pasco State Attorney Bernie McCabe said he is not philosophically 
opposed to the requirement of a unanimous jury recommendation, but disagrees 
with a re-opening of closed cases.

There's the question of records being destroyed and witnesses going missing for 
cases that were litigated 30 or more years ago. And with new state attorneys 
taking over offices in Jacksonville, Orlando and Tampa, those concerns could be 
even greater.

There's also a simple question of justice, McCabe said. Some recommendations 
that were 11-1 or 10-2 might reasonably have been 12-0 if jurors had been told 
that a unanimous decision was required for a death sentence.

"It's like a juror knowing he's got a blank in his gun on the firing squad,'' 
McCabe said. "He says, 'I know what's going to happen, I know the 
recommendation is going to be death, so I don't have to fire my bullet.' It's 
very frustrating because we did everything by the rules that were approved by 
the court at the time. And now the absurdity is, decades later, we have to do 
the same thing all over again.''

Dillinger said public defenders are hopeful that prosecutors will accept life 
sentences for any cases involving 7-5, 8-4 or 9-3 jury recommendations. McCabe 
suggests that each case will be looked at individually to determine a 
"reasonable probability of a unanimous verdict.''

Of the 36 cases that had majority recommendations in Tampa Bay, 14 were decided 
by 11-1 or 10-2 votes. In Merck's case, the first jury voted 9-3 for death, the 
2nd was 12-0 and the 3rd was 9-3.

Since the 3rd case is the sentence he is now serving, attorneys might have a 
pretty good argument that his sentence be changed to life, without the 
possibility of parole.

"If he stays in prison until he dies, I'd be okay with that,'' Cheek, the 
victim's mother said. "But you have to remember he had 3 juries look at his 
sentence and (30) of 36 recommended death.''

(source: Tampa Bay Times)






OHIO----impending execution

Phillips' Clemency And Execution Future


The 1st man scheduled to be put to death in Ohio since a problematic execution 
almost 3 years ago is asking for life without parole. 40 year old Ronald 
Phillips of Akron was sentenced to die for the rape and murder of his 
girlfriend's 3 year old daughter Sheila Marie Evans in 1993, when he was 19. 
Attorneys for Phillips spent 6 hours before the parole board restating the case 
for sparing Phillips, which hinges on his abusive upbringing and his 
reformation into a better person behind bars. Among those speaking for Phillips 
was his older half-brother Eddie, in a pre-recorded video. He got emotional 
when asked what he would tell the parole board about his younger sibling. "He 
was young. If you would have seen what he'd seen and got abused for all his 
life - there's many kids that gets abused but never is nothing stole. I just 
want you guys to know that my brother's human and I know he's sorry for his 
mistakes," Eddie Phillips said on the video.

Videos were also shown featuring Phillips' half-sister Mary and his mother 
Donna, who died in January. In 2013, Phillips had gotten a delay in his 
execution when he offered to donate a kidney to his mother, but that donation 
was ruled out a year later when it was determined that he wouldn't have time to 
recover from the transplant surgery before the new execution date.

Both women offered more details of repeated physical, verbal and sexual abuse 
that Phillips suffered from family members while growing up. Phillips' attorney 
Tim Sweeney said the jury never heard these horrible stories, and if they had, 
it might have made a difference to even 1 juror - which is all that would be 
needed to block a death sentence. "This young man did a terrible, inexcusable 
thing. But we can see why he did that. And we can begin to see that some of 
this was part of what was embedded in him because of where he came from. He's 
not the worst of the worst offenders, even though he's the worst - this crime 
may have been the worst type of crime, the rape of a 3-year-old."

But when the state took over, a different picture of Phillips and his defense 
emerged. Brad Gessner is the chief counsel in the Summit County Prosecutor's 
Office. He says these claims that Phillips is the product of a violently 
abusive home is the latest in a series of delay tactics, and he said that 
pattern won't stop until Phillips' death sentence is carried out. He quoted 
from an article written by a leading death penalty attorney. "If Ronald 
Phillips gets life without parole, you're going to see these attacks continue 
because as a death row lawyer who fights to keep his clients alive: 'I believe 
life without parole denies the possibility of redemption every bit as much as 
strapping a murderer to a gurney and filling him with poison'," Gessner quoted. 
"This is not about Ronald Phillips. This is about the death penalty and it???s 
any opportunity, any attack you can make."

Gessner also took down the case put up by Phillips' attorneys by highlighting 
conflicting statements from various family members, friends and experts. And 
then Gessner turned to the 3 year old victim, Sheila Marie Evans, who he says 
hasn't gotten the justice she deserves and that execution is appropriate. "As 
the defense has agreed, this crime is the worst of the worst form of this 
offense. Now, the defense is arguing that he is not the worst offender, and I 
would take exception with that." Gessner said. "If you commit the worst of the 
worst offense, you are that worst offender."

The parole board will come up with a recommendation on whether to go forward 
with execution or commute Phillips' sentence to life in prison. That will go on 
to the governor on December 9, and he can accept it or reject it. But it might 
not matter right away. In October, the state applied to use a new 3-drug 
mixture for lethal injection, having found big problems in trying to get the 
single drug that it had wanted to use for executions after the controversial 
execution of Dennis McGuire in 2014. McGuire appeared to gasp and choke when he 
died using a 2-drug cocktail. Since this newly proposed trio of drugs has never 
been used in executions before, a legal battle is ahead, and it's just 
beginning in federal court. And it's unlikely to conclude in time for Phillips' 
scheduled execution date on January 12.

(source: WCBE news)