[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----DEL., N.C., FLA., ALA./GA., OHIO, TENN., NEB., USA

[Rick Halperin]

Dec. 5




DELAWARE:

Judge, James Cooke lawyers meet over death penalty


A judge is meeting with attorneys in the case of a man sentenced to death for 
raping and killing a University of Delaware student.

The judge scheduled an office conference Monday in the case of James Cooke, who 
was convicted of the 2005 murder of 20-year-old Lindsey Bonistall of White 
Plains, New York.

The U.S. Supreme Court last year refused to hear an appeal from Cooke.

Earlier this year, the state Supreme Court declared Delaware's death penalty 
law unconstitutional because it allows judges too much discretion and does not 
require that a jury find unanimously and beyond a reasonable doubt that a 
defendant deserves to be executed.

The court will hear arguments this week on whether its ruling should be applied 
retroactively to Cooke and 12 other death row inmates.

(source: Associated Press)






NORTH CAROLINA:

Bradley charged with murdering 2nd woman, state to seek death penalty


A convicted killer charged in the presumed death of Shannon Rippy Van Newkirk 
is now also charged with 1st-degree murder in the death of another woman and 
the district attorney announced he intends to seek the death penalty.

James Opelton Bradley, 54, appeared in New Hanover County Superior Court on 
Monday where it was announced that a grand jury indicted him in the killing of 
Elisha Marie Tucker.

District Attorney Ben David said there will be a hearing Jan. 9 at which time 
he will announce that he is seeking the death penalty for Bradley.

Tucker, 34, of Wilmington was found wrapped in 3 trash bags and buried in a 
Hampstead field on April 29, 2014, while Wilmington Police Department 
detectives were searching Van Newkirk, Bradley's co-worker missing since April 
5, 2014.

Tucker was killed by blunt force trauma to her head and had signs of 
strangulation around her neck.

Tucker disappeared in August 2013 from an area between the 600 and 800 blocks 
of Dawson Street. At the time, Bradley -- who was released from prison in 
February 2013 -- was living in the 700 block of Dawson Street with his 
daughter.

Bradley served 25 years in prison for the 1988 murder of his stepdaughter Ivy 
Gipson.

Van Newkirk's body has never been found and little evidence exists beyond her 
silence that indicates she is dead.

In April a judge ruled Tucker's killing, as well as the Gipson killing, could 
be heard by the Van Newkirk jury, despite the fact that Bradley had never been 
charged in the Tucker case. During the April hearing a Wilmington woman 
testified that Bradley introduced her to Tucker as his girlfriend.

(source: Wilmington Star News)






FLORIDA:

Death penalty: Florida may be pondering 'novel' lethal injection change


In a move that would be certain to spur more litigation over the state's 
already embattled death penalty, Florida corrections officials appear to be 
planning what could be a dramatic change to the triple-drug lethal injection 
process --- including the use of a drug never before used for executions.

The Department of Corrections has spent more than $12,000 this year stockpiling 
3 drugs likely to be used to kill condemned prisoners, according to records 
obtained by The News Service of Florida.

The state has never previously used any of the 3 drugs it has been purchasing 
since last year, even as Florida's death penalty remains in limbo after a 
series of rulings from the courts.

The new triple-drug cocktail would be the only one of its kind among the states 
that rely on similar procedures to kill prisoners.

1 of the drugs that Florida could be planning to use as the critical 1st 
dosage, used to anesthetize condemned inmates, has never before been used as 
part of the 3-drug execution procedure in the U.S., according to a 
death-penalty expert at the University of California, Berkeley Law School.

A federal judge this fall ordered the state to provide years of records related 
to Florida's three-drug lethal injection protocol --- including the types of 
drugs purchased, the strengths and amounts of the drugs, the expiration dates 
of the drugs and the names of suppliers --- to lawyers representing Arizona 
Death Row inmates and the First Amendment Coalition of Arizona.

The Arizona lawyers in June filed a subpoena seeking the records from the 
Florida Department of Corrections, but the state refused to release the 
documents --- arguing that the information is exempt under Florida's broad 
open-records law --- until ordered to do so by U.S. Magistrate Judge Charles 
Stampelos.

Stampelos gave corrections officials the option of keeping the records 
protected from the public, but, unlike other states that provided similar 
records to the Arizona lawyers, the Florida agency did not require the heavily 
redacted documents to be kept secret.

The 104 pages of documents include invoices, drug logs and a handful of emails, 
and indicate that Florida has run out of the execution drugs it has used for 
the past few years.

Most important, the records show that the state no longer has a supply of 
midazolam hydrochloride, the drug used to sedate prisoners before injecting 
them with a paralytic and then a killing agent.

But Florida has been purchasing the drug etomidate, also known by its brand 
name "Amidate," a rapid-onset and short-acting "hypnotic drug" used for "the 
induction of general anesthesia," according to Amidate manufacturer Hospira's 
website.

The state made its 1st purchase of etomidate in April 2015 and has purchased it 
regularly throughout this year. The drug would likely be used to replace 
midazolam, according to lethal injection experts.

Department of Corrections officials would not comment on whether the agency is 
considering a change to the lethal-injection protocol or whether the state was 
forced to seek new drugs due to some pharmaceutical manufacturers in recent 
years banning the use of their products for executions.

"The death penalty is our most solemn duty. Our foremost objective of the 
lethal injection process is a humane and dignified process," agency spokeswoman 
Michelle Glady said in an email.

The constitutionality of any state's three-drug execution procedure hinges on 
the 1st of the drugs used in the process, said Megan McCracken, a lawyer with 
the Death Penalty Clinic at the University of California, Berkeley Law School.

Ensuring that prisoners are properly sedated is critical to guaranteeing that 
the lethal injection procedure does not violate Eighth Amendment prohibitions 
on cruel and unusual punishments, she said.

"For executions that use three drugs, and specifically executions that use a 
paralytic as the 2nd drug, the 1st drug is crucially important because whether 
or not the execution will be humane and will bring about death without pain and 
suffering will turn completely on whether or not that 1st drug renders the 
prisoner insensate to pain," she said.

Midazolam, still in use by some states, is at the heart of the Arizona lawsuit, 
filed after convicted killer Rudolph Wood took 2 hours to die in 2014. Arizona 
corrections officials have tried to get the lawsuit dismissed as moot because 
they claim they have run out of the drug and it is no longer available. At 
least 4 other states claim they have supplies of midazolam.

Concerns about midazolam also prompted the Florida Supreme Court last year to 
halt the execution of Jerry William Correll, pending the outcome of a lawsuit 
filed by Oklahoma prisoners over the drug's use. In June 2015, a sharply 
divided U.S. Supreme Court rejected the challenge in the landmark case, known 
as Glossip v. Gross.

The use of etomidate in an execution --- if that is what Florida is planning to 
do --- is "brand new and wholly novel," McCracken said.

"It has not been used to our knowledge in an execution in any state and it's 
never appeared on an execution protocol in any state," said McCracken, who 
specializes in the lethal injection process.

Like most other states with a 3-drug execution procedure, Florida's current 
protocol requires the use of midazolam to sedate prisoners before injecting a 
paralytic --- now vecuronium bromide --- followed by potassium chloride, the 
drug used to stop a prisoner's heart.

The records show that Florida has a small supply of potassium chloride that 
will expire in February, and in March began buying potassium acetate, 
presumably a replacement for potassium chloride, the drug used to stop a 
prisoner's heart.

Potassium acetate has only been used once before, the experts said. Last year, 
Oklahoma corrections officials admitted they mistakenly used potassium acetate 
in the execution of Charles Warner, although the state's protocol requires the 
use of potassium chloride.

The last time Florida purchased potassium chloride was in June, 2015, when a 
vendor sold it to the state accidentally, the records show. The vendor 
repeatedly requested that the state return the drugs. It is unknown if Florida 
is able to purchase it elsewhere.

The introduction of a new protocol is likely to further complicate Florida's 
embattled death penalty.

Executions in Florida have been on hold since January, when the U.S. Supreme 
Court ruled, in a case known as Hurst v. Florida, that the state's death 
penalty sentencing law was unconstitutional because it gave too much power to 
judges, instead of juries.

Shortly after the Hurst decision, the Florida Supreme Court halted 2 pending 
executions ordered by Gov. Rick Scott. Those stays remain in effect.

The Florida Supreme Court recently struck down a new law, passed in March to 
address the Hurst ruling, because the measure did not require unanimous jury 
recommendations for death sentences to be imposed.

A new lethal-injection protocol would inevitably lead to lawsuits challenging 
the constitutionality of the new drugs, defense lawyers predicted.

"A new protocol will potentially lead to more litigation because, based on the 
drugs they've ordered, a combination of those drugs have never been used in an 
execution in the U.S. that we're aware, so the litigation would be centered on 
the fact that this novel drug combination essentially amounts to human 
experimentation," said Maria DeLiberato, a lawyer representing inmate Dane 
Abdool, 1 of 5 Death row inmates who are plaintiffs in a federal lawsuit 
challenging Florida's lethal-injection protocol.

The inmates are also challenging, among other things, the secrecy involved in 
where the drugs are obtained and how they are administered.

(soure: Sun-Sentinel)






ALABAMA/GEORGIA:

Alabama and Georgia dueling for death penalty capital


In the midst of celebrations, good cheer, and that warm charity of spirit only 
the holidays bring, oft expressed as "peace on earth and goodwill towards all," 
Georgia and Alabama are instead ritualizing killing.

If it feels like I just wrote a column about Georgia's shameful record on 
executions, it's because I did. 3 weeks ago.

Observing that Georgia had performed a record 8 executions in 2016, more than 
any other state, and more in any year in Georgia since the Supreme Court 
reinstated the death penalty in 1976, I wrote: "Georgia is now the new, 
undisputed champion killer of the condemned."

Unsatisfied and lusting for still more violence, vengeance, and blood, Georgia 
is primed to add to their already gruesome gurney-tally tomorrow, December 6.

That's when stern-faced, tight-lipped lawmen (and possibly law-women) will, for 
extra pay, take a break from the Christian spirit and normal human rhythms of 
work, football, prayer, and time spent with family and friends, to frogmarch 
50-year-old William Sallie - who has already spent more than 1/2 his life 
imprisoned - to his death.

Sticking to tradition like it was hanging mistletoe, Georgia's Department of 
Corrections has already gleefully issued, "Sallie's Last Meal Advisory," which 
all good people of conscience will immediately recognize as a fiendish and 
loutish display that debases the dignity of human life.

Glomming on to this gross ghoulishness for the sake of clicks is Rhonda Cook, 
who writes for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution; the headline of Ms. Cook's 
recent piece peevishly opines, "[m]urderer requests junk food for his last 
meal."

Putting aside Mr. Sallie's gastronomic predilections, Andrew Cohen, writing for 
the Brennan Center for Justice, explained at the end of last week in "The Night 
the Lights Went Out in Georgia," why Sallie's execution should horrify any 
person who believes in basic due process of law.

Meanwhile, as competitive with Georgia in killing its citizens as it is in 
college football, correctional officials at that hell on earth Holman Prison in 
neighboring Alabama are sipping on egg nog and practicing up how to correctly 
spell, say, and explain that thick tongue-twister of a word, "Lagophthalmos."

No, dear reader, I know what you're thinking and don't be ashamed, I was 
confused at first too - Lagophthalmos is not the name of one of Rudolph's 
long-lost reindeer friends.

Rather, Lagophthalmos is the cockamamie excuse Alabama's Department of 
Corrections (ADOC) and Attorney General's Office are rallying around to 
disclaim why Alabama's last execution may have burned a man, death row inmate 
Christopher Brooks, alive; this is a claim federal public defenders made and 
supported with affidavits from a medical expert and a federal investigator that 
should deeply disconcert, if not demoralize, anyone who believes medieval 
torture has no place in 21st century America; a claim that still has not been 
aired in a court of law.

And so, because everyone knows clemency in Alabama is a farce, unless the 
Supreme Court of the United States or the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals 
grants a stay of execution, Lagophthalmos and its dubious merits for why 
Christopher Brooks' eye inexplicably popped open as he lay on that ghastly 
gurney in January, are certain to be on the mind of everyone invited by ADOC to 
witness Smith's execution this Thursday.

Just how many eyeballs will be eyeballing Smith for signs he is being burned 
alive on a chemical stake - a stake thrusting right through the feckless heart 
of the Constitution's prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment?

Let's just say it'll be about the same as the number of ornaments weighing down 
the gentle blue-green boughs on a Christmas tree.

Festive, isn't it?

(source: Stephen Cooper is a former D.C. public defender who worked as an 
assistant federal public defender in Alabama between 2012 and 2015----The Hill)






OHIO----impending execution

Clemency Hearings End for Death Row Inmate Ronald Phillips ---- The parole 
board will give its recommendation whether to commute Phillips' sentence to 
life in prison. The recommendation will be passed on to Gov. Kasich next week.


The 1st man scheduled to be put to death in Ohio since a problematic execution 
almost three years ago is asking for life without parole. The clemency hearing 
for Ronald Phillips was held yesterday.

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.

A childhood filled with abuse

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.

Worst of the worst?

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 one 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 ... this crime may have been the worst type of crime, 
the rape of a 3-year-old."

A delaying tactic

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.

'If you commit the worst of the worst offense, you are that worst offender.'

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 highlighted conflicting statements from family members, friends 
and experts. And then Gessner turned attention 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."

Next step with a new drug

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 Dec. 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 
Jan.12.

(source: WKSU news)



TENNESSEE:

State to seek death penalty in Drummonds murders


Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty in a double homicide this summer in 
Tipton County.

Michael Cullum, 46, of Millington, was booked Friday on murder, theft, arson 
and weapons charges for the murders of 66-year-old Robert Bailey and his 
41-year-old daughter Tammie.

The 2 were found dead in their home on Glen Springs Road in Drummonds back in 
July.

Cullum was given a million dollar bond in that case.

Also Friday, District Attorney General Mike Dunavant filed to have the death 
penalty possible for the murders.

Jason Holland is already charged with 2 counts of 1st-degree murder, 2 counts 
of murder in the perpetration of a robbery, on a count of aggravated arson, 1 
count of tampering with evidence, and 1 count of filing a false police report.

Cullum is already in the Shelby County Jail for the murders of his 2 neighbors, 
Brenda and Rhonda Dukes.

They were killed in their home outside Millington in June, just a month before 
the Drummonds murders.

According to police, in that case, Cullum admitted to friends he killed the 
women, then took Lortab tablets from their house.

Cullum has an extensive criminal history dating back to the 90's, including 
charges of aggravated burglary, aggravated assault, and evading arrest.

(source: WREG news)






NEBRASKA:

John Joubert "Death Row Drawings" Unearthed In New Book On Nebraska's Most 
Notorious Serial Child Killer


Just weeks after Nebraska voters decided to reinstate the death penalty, there 
is new information in the case of John Joubert - of the last criminals to be 
executed in the state. Former KMTV-3 anchorman and investigative reporter, Mark 
Pettit, has obtained and released disturbing drawings made by Joubert as he 
waited to die in Nebraska's electric chair. Pettit has tried for years to 
obtain the drawings--a move fought, won and lost in Nebraska's court system.

In his new book: A Need to Kill: The Death Row Drawings (now available at 
Amazon.com) Pettit makes the drawings public and releases a full assessment 
from one of the nation's leading experts on criminal behavior. Pettit says a 
confidential source, upset that the state was fighting his efforts to obtain 
the drawings, provided him copies of the Joubert drawings more than a year ago 
- before the case made it to the Nebraska Supreme Court. Out of respect for the 
court system and not wanting to get involved in the debate over the death 
penalty in Nebraska, Pettit says he waited till after the recent election to 
release his findings (to view the trailer for the new book, take a look here).

"John Joubert told me on several occasions that he believed his death sentence 
would somehow be vacated and he would ultimately get out of prison," said 
Pettit, who interviewed Joubert multiple times at the Nebraska State 
Penitentiary in Lincoln prior to the convicted killer's execution. "These 
drawings prove that would have been a very bad thing. The expert analysis of 
the Death Row Drawings is very troubling - but also enlightening. I understand 
John Joubert much better now," Pettit continued. "These drawings confirm my 
worst fears about him."

Pettit, who has won 3 EMMY awards for his work, has provided copies of the 
Joubert drawings to law enforcement officials in Nebraska, who in turn plan to 
share the information with the FBI.

"From the beginning, I've said that if I ever got my hands on the drawings, I 
would have them analyzed by experts in criminal behavior and would turn over 
the findings to law enforcement officials in hopes it would help them in future 
investigations," Pettit said. "I've kept my promise."

In his professional assessment of the drawings and evidence in the case, 
criminal behavior expert Keith E. Howard called Joubert a "sexual sadist, an 
organized offender and a pedophile" who derived pleasure from eliciting fear 
from his young victims. A 15-year veteran of the Georgia Bureau of 
Investigation and trained by the FBI in behavioral science, Howard says Joubert 
was arrested "in full bloom as a serial killer" - and says the drawings "leave 
no lingering doubt" that Joubert "would have continued to kill" if ever 
released from prison.

As part of his investigation and prior to releasing the information, Pettit 
shared the drawings and Howard's analysis with Art Harris, a former reporter at 
the Washington Post and CNN Investigative Correspondent. Harris is a 2 time 
EMMY award-winner who has covered dozens of high-profile crimes and trials 
including those of O.J. Simpson, Michael Jackson and Wayne Williams, who was 
convicted in the "Atlanta Missing and Murdered Children" case.

"Mark has done a rare thing--he's uncovered blockbuster evidence about a serial 
killer's evil that officials tried to hide from the public," said Harris. "Long 
after the case was closed, Mark suspected there was more and kept digging - for 
30 years - until he unearthed a gold mine of 'Psychological DNA' the killer 
left behind," continued Harris. "Mark's dedication to the story - and the truth 
- is not only an inspiration, but ground-breaking journalism that takes us into 
the darkest corners of a depraved and dangerous mind. This work advances the 
forensics of fighting violent crime," said Harris.

Harris was blunt in his criticism of those who fought to keep the Joubert 
drawings from being released.

"It is truly shocking that government officials in Nebraska fought to keep this 
evidence from the public," said Harris. "It's information that should resolve 
any lingering doubt--and absolve the people of Nebraska of any guilt in 
carrying out the death penalty in the John Joubert case. Mark's book puts the 
final nail in the killer's coffin and offers what we all seek in the aftermath 
of mass murder - which is peace of mind that justice was done."

(source: Yahoo news)






USA:

Prosecutors say they need 7 days in church case


Prosecutors estimate it will take about 7 days to present their case against 
Dylann Roof, who is charged with hate crimes in the fatal shooting of 9 black 
parishioners in a Charleston, South Carolina, church last year.

Roof's lawyers were put back on the case Monday by the judge after Roof 
requested it. They said they wouldn't need much time to prepare for the guilt 
phase of Roof's trial, which is scheduled to begin Wednesday.

Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for Roof, meaning there will be a 
2nd, penalty phase of the trial if he's found guilty. For that part, Roof wants 
to go back to being his own lawyer.

U.S. District Judge Richard Gergel also ruled Monday that Roof's parents, 
grandmother and grandfather can remain in the courtroom during the trial even 
though they're potential witnesses. All other witnesses must stay out until 
they testify. Roof's grandfather is a lawyer.

(source: Associated Press)