[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, R.I., PENN., VA., ALA., OHIO

[Rick Halperin]

Dec. 11




TEXAS:

Jury selection in death penalty case set for September 2017


A Texas prison inmate accused of capital murder in the beating death of a guard 
at the Barry Telford Unit during the summer of 2015 appeared in court Friday 
morning.

Jury selection in the capital murder trial of Billy Joel Tracy, 38, is 
scheduled to begin Sept. 6, 2017, and could take weeks. Tracy is accused of 
wielding a metal bar used to open the tray slots in prisoner's doors like a 
baseball bat to hammer the life out of correctional officer Timothy Davison 
during a routine walk from a recreational area to a cell in administrative 
segregation July 15, 2015. The state is seeking the death penalty.

Tracy appeared Friday with his lawyers, Mac Cobb of Mount Pleasant, Texas, and 
Jeff Harrelson of Texarkana, before 102nd District Judge Bobby Lockhart for a 
pretrial hearing. Among issues discussed Friday was the exchange of discovery, 
or evidence, between the state and defense.

Assistant District Attorney Kelley Crisp and Bowie County District Attorney 
Jerry Rochelle said they have been diligent in complying with rules and law 
concerning discovery by turning over boxes of documents and evidence early in 
the case and packets of "supplemental discovery" at pretrial hearings which 
contain indexes of what is included.

"There is no greater burden as lawyers or as human beings than when we're 
talking about taking a life. We take this very seriously," Rochelle said. "Let 
there be no doubt that we are following the law. We are going above and beyond 
what the laws of disclosure require we provide, so when the time comes to put a 
needle in that guy's arm, there won't be any doubt in my mind."

Crisp said the state has no objection to Lockhart signing an order which spells 
out the state's discovery responsibilities as Cobb requested. But Crisp 
disagreed with Cobb when he complained that she has made an issue of the 
relationship between the defense lawyers and Tracy.

Tracy has filed numerous motions on his own behalf, including one for a speedy 
trial. The defense lawyers have asked for continuances in the case to give them 
more time to prepare which conflict with Tracy's motion. Crisp said she has a 
duty to respond to the motions and has expressed concern that Tracy is taking 
steps to create issues that could help him appeal a conviction and death 
sentence.

Cobb produced an affidavit signed by Tracy at Friday's hearing which states he 
is not seeking a speedy trial. Rochelle told the court that the state is ready 
for trial.

Tracy has a history of violence towards guards while in prison and has received 
additional 10-year and 45-year terms for attacks at other prison units. He is 
currently serving a life sentence with parole possible for aggravated assault, 
burglary and assault on a peace officer he received as an 18-year-old in 
Rockwall County, Texas.

(source: txktoday.com)






RHODE ISLAND:

O'Brien wants death penalty for those who assassinate first responders


Rep. William O'Brien, of House District 54 in North Providence, says he's 
planning to introduce legislation in the upcoming General Assembly session 
instituting the death penalty for anyone convicted of targeted assassinations 
of the state's first responders, such as police officers, firefighters, or 
EMTs. Several other similar pieces of legislation are being introduced across 
the country.

"Our first responders sacrifice their own personal well-being to protect us and 
it has sickened me watching them be set-up and killed in targeted 
assassinations," said O'Brien in a statement. "The penalty for such cowardly 
acts must be severe and there is nothing more severe than the death penalty.

"It is my hope that such stark consequences will send a loud and clear message 
that our state's first responders are off limits and if you attack them the 
punishment will be absolute," he added.

O'Brien's proposed legislation comes in response to several recent incidents 
around the country where first responders were ambushed and killed.

(source: valleybreeze.com)






PENNSYLVANIA----new death sentence

Man who murdered 2, dumped bodies in Schuylkill River sentenced to death


A jury chose the death penalty for a Philadelphia man who murdered 2 brothers, 
and dumped their bodies into the Schuylkill River along Kelly Drive.

Tam Le received 2 consecutive death sentences Friday.

He kidnapped, tortured and stabbed Vu and Viet Huynh in August 2014 over a drug 
debt.

Their bodies were tied to cement and dumped into the water.

(source: WPVI news)






VIRGINIA:

Execution Costs Spike in Virginia; State Pays Pharmacy $66K


Virginia prison officials have paid a secret compounding pharmacy $66,000 to 
obtain lethal injection drugs for its next 2 executions - roughly 63 times last 
year's going price for the state's 3-drug lethal injection package.

Like other states, Virginia has struggled to obtain these drugs as 
pharmaceutical companies block their sale for executions to avoid being 
publicly accused of violating medical ethics. But under a new law, the state 
can have the drugs made at a compounding pharmacy and shield its identity from 
the public.

Virginia's lethal injection protocol calls for the use of a sedative - 
pentobarbital or midazolam - followed by rocuronium bromide to halt breathing, 
and potassium chloride to stop the heart.

The Virginia Department of Corrections has paid this pharmacy $66,000 since 
September for vials of midazolam and potassium chloride, according to receipts 
provided to The Associated Press through a Freedom of Information Act request 
after the pharmacy's identifying information was redacted.

Virginia also recently purchased about $340 worth of rocuronium bromide from 
Cardinal Health, an Ohio-based pharmaceutical wholesaler, invoices show.

This gives the state enough drugs to execute 2 inmates, according to Lisa 
Kinney, spokeswoman for the Virginia Department of Corrections, as long as 
legal appeals don't continue beyond the drugs' early-2017 expiration dates.

Virginia added midazolam to its drug protocol in 2014 but has not yet used it. 
Megan McCracken, a lethal injection expert at the University of California, 
Berkeley law school, said Virginia would be the 1st state she knows of to use 
compounded midazolam to execute an inmate.

Death penalty opponents have objected to midazolam after problematic executions 
elsewhere. An Alabama inmate coughed repeatedly and his body heaved for 13 
minutes after he was supposed to be sedated during his execution on Thursday.

The Richmond Times-Dispatch reported in September that the state had agreed to 
pay the compounding pharmacy $16,500 per drug per execution. The documents 
obtained by the AP show the state went ahead with those purchases.

The drugs for Virginia's last execution, carried out in 2015, came cheap by 
comparison: Serial killer Alfredo Prieto was put to death using compounded 
pentobarbital provided by the state of Texas, along with other drugs Virginia 
had in store. The going price for a supply of the 3 drugs needed for a single 
execution early last year was about $525, Kinney said.

The costs have shot up nationwide since opponents of the death penalty 
threatened to shame any conventional pharmaceutical company supplying these 
drugs.

"When fewer suppliers are willing to participate, the law of supply and demand 
says that the price will go up," said Robert Dunham, executive director of the 
Death Penalty Information Center, which advocates against capital punishment. 
"And when there are business risks of becoming known as a pharmacy that kills 
rather than preserves life, the pharmacy will charge more."

Virginia got its latest supply of rocuronium bromide at a bargain price, 
apparently unbeknownst to its manufacturer.

"We don't really want any part of this issue from a public standpoint," said 
Jeff Granger, vice president of business strategies for X-GEN Pharmaceuticals.

Granger told the AP he was surprised and concerned to learn that X-GEN's 
rocuronium bromide had been resold by a wholesaler to Virginia's prison system. 
He said X-GEN had tried to put controls in place to prevent its products from 
being used in executions.

A spokesman for Gov. Terry McAuliffe - who signed the law allowing Virginia to 
obtain lethal injection drugs from the secret compounding pharmacy - declined 
to comment. Brian Coy told the Times-Dispatch in September that in the "modern 
atmosphere, with respect to lethal injections, this is the cost of enforcing 
the law."

An execution date of Jan. 18 has been set for Ricky Gray, who was convicted of 
slaying a well-known family of 4 in Richmond on New Years' Day in 2006.

The U.S. Supreme Court also recently rejected an appeal by another Virginia 
inmate - Ivan Teleguz - was convicted in 2006 of hiring a man to kill his 
ex-girlfriend. Teleguz has another appeal pending in the 4th Circuit U.S. Court 
of Appeals.

(source: Associated Press)






ALABAMA:

Advocates call Alabama execution an 'avoidable disaster'


Defenders of a condemned inmate in Alabama are calling his execution an 
"avoidable disaster," but the state prison commissioner says there was no 
visible evidence that he suffered during a lethal injection.

Death row inmate Ronald Bert Smith Jr. coughed, and his upper body heaved 
repeatedly, for the first 13 minutes of the procedure as he was being sedated, 
and his arms appeared to move slightly after two tests were administered to 
determine consciousness.

Smith's attorneys, who watched the execution said in a Friday statement said 
the movements show that he "was not anesthetized at any point during the 
agonizingly long procedure."

Alabama's Corrections Commissioner Jeff Dunn disputes the assessment that Smith 
was in pain, saying Alabama properly followed a lethal injection protocol that 
has been upheld by the courts.

"Early in the execution, Smith, with eyes closed, did cough but at no time 
during the execution was there observational evidence that he suffered," Dunn's 
statement said. Dunn said a required autopsy will determine if there any 
irregularities.

Smith was sentenced to die for shooting convenience store clerk Casey Wilson in 
the head a 1994 robbery. A jury recommended a life sentence by a 7-5 vote, but 
a judge imposed the death penalty, likened the slaying of the pistol-whipped 
clerk to an execution-style killing.

Smith's final movements during the lethal injection will likely be fiercely 
debated as Alabama resumes executions after years of litigation and a drug 
shortage created by campaigns against the death penalty. Inmate advocates argue 
that Alabama's process is too flawed and secretive, raising the risk of botched 
executions.

+"No autopsy can measure the extent of Ron Smith's suffering as he died. We are 
profoundly disappointed that the state and courts failed to intervene at any 
stage and take steps to prevent this avoidable disaster. We will continue our 
own efforts to make sure this suffering does not occur again," said Smith's 
lawyers with the Alabama Federal Defenders Program.

This was Alabama's 2nd execution using midazolam to render an inmate 
unconscious before injections of rocuronium bromide and potassium chloride to 
stop the lungs and heart.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 last year that midazolam wasn't proven to 
violate the Eighth Amendment's prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment. 
Inmates have continued to challenge its use, saying it is a sedative, not an 
anesthetic, and cannot reliably render a person unconscious.

Soon after the execution began, Smith clenched his fists and raised his head 
early in the procedure. Smith then coughed and heaved his chest upward multiple 
times during the first 13 minutes of the execution process.

Unlike Alabama's 1st midazolam execution, the state performed a second 
consciousness check on Smith as he continue to cough and heave.

A corrections officer standing in the execution chamber gave Smith 2 
consciousness checks, which involved stroking the area around his eyes, saying 
his name and pinching his left arm. If the inmate does not respond, the warden, 
from the control room, administers the final 2 drugs, Dunn said.

The 1st check was given about 10:37 p.m. Smith's left arm moved slightly after 
the pinch. A 2nd check was performed 10 minutes later. Smith did not 
immediately respond but shortly afterward, his right hand and lower arm 
appeared to lift up slightly.

Smith's attorneys noted the movement to each other as they watched the 
execution. Dunn, who also watched the execution, said he did not see movement.

Smith's lawyers believe the state gave him an additional dose of midazolam 
after he responded to the 1st consciousness test, but Dunn declined to say if a 
2nd dose was used, saying the department won't discuss specifics of the 
protocol.

States have turned to midazolam and other drug combinations as pharmaceutical 
companies have become reluctant to sell the drugs that were previously used in 
lethal injections.

"I think we saw last night what we, unfortunately, have seen so many times 
before, which is that midazolam, which was never intended to be used this way, 
is not effective and can't be used this way," said Cassandra Stubbs, who 
directs the capital punishment project of the American Civil Liberties Union.

Arizona, Ohio and Florida also have used midazolam. Mississippi and Arkansas, 
which have not executed an inmate in several years, have also announced plans 
to use the sedative.

Critics have pointed to problems with executions in 3 other states that use 
midazolam. In Ohio, inmate Dennis McGuire repeatedly gasped and snorted for 
more than 26 minutes while being put to death. In Arizona, Joseph Rudolph Wood 
gasped and snorted for more than 90 minutes after his execution began.

Alabama has been trying to resume executions after a lull caused by a shortage 
of execution drugs and litigation. The state executed Christopher Eugene Brooks 
in January for the 1993 rape and beating death of a woman. Brooks did not 
display the type of movements that Smith did, according to media witnesses. The 
state performed one consciousness check.

Smith's execution - as measured from the time the curtains open from the 
viewing room to the time that he was pronounced dead - lasted about 8 minutes 
longer than Brooks.

(source: Associated Press)



OHIO----impending execution

No mercy for Ronald Phillips: Execution recommended for Akron child rapist and 
murderer


The Ohio Parole Board has recommended that Gov. John Kasich move forward with 
the execution of Ronald Phillips, an Akron man convicted of raping and 
murdering a 3-year-old girl.

Phillips' friends and attorneys sought mercy last week in Columbus. Phillips, 
43, has been on death row since 1993. He's scheduled to be the 1st man executed 
in Ohio since Dennis McGuire, who in 2014 suffered for 26 minutes before dying 
- the longest in Ohio's history - after lethal injection drugs were 
administered.

Phillips was convicted in 1993 of beating and raping his girlfriend???s 
3-year-old daughter, Sheila Marie Evans, who died Jan. 18, 1993, of injuries 
from the violence. Her family urged the Parole Board to deny requests to let 
Phillips live.

But Phillips' supporters argued he has a life worth sparing. If spared from the 
death penalty, he vowed to become a chaplain serving his fellow inmates.

According to a clemency report filed with the governor's office on Friday, the 
Parole Board voted 10-2 to deny the request to spare his life. Kasich will have 
the final say on Phillips' fate.

Members of the board in favor of Phillips' execution said it was appropriate 
because Phillips' actions were "among the worst of the worst capital crimes." 
They noted that Phillips grew up in a dysfunctional environment, but opined 
that it was unclear how much abuse he personally endured.

The 2 who voted in favor of Phillips spending his life in prison questioned the 
reliability of some of the opinions offered by a medical examiner during 
Phillips' trial in 1993.

Summit County Prosecutor Sherri Bevan Walsh agreed with the Parole Board's 
recommendation.

"Phillips brutally beat and assaulted Sheila Marie over several hours. She 
suffered for days before dying from her injuries," she said. "Phillips deserves 
the ultimate punishment for what he did."

Walsh noted that Friday's recommendation was the third time the Ohio Parole 
Board has advised Kasich to deny mercy for Phillips. She said she hopes Kasich 
agrees.

An Ohio interfaith organization, though, urged Kasich to go against the 
recommendation.

"Ronald Phillips is a different person today than he was when he killed 
3-year-old Sheila Marie Evans," said the Rev. Rebecca J. Tollefson, executive 
director of the Ohio Council of Churches and Faith in Public Life. "We believe 
Mr. Phillips can and should be held accountable, and we can do that without 
killing him."

Amanda Hoyt, Ohio director of Faith in Public Life, agreed with Tollefson.

"Our greatest call as evangelicals is to make disciples of men. Ronald Phillips 
has an opportunity to reach the lost and advance the kingdom of God," she said. 
"Through his ministry, Mr. Phillips is reaching men who need to hear the 
gospel, providing light for those trapped in darkness."

Tollefson announced the groups will launch a postcard campaign this weekend to 
urge Kasich to spare Phillips.

The recommendation from the Parole Board comes days after the Ohio Attorney 
General's Office denied an attempt to delay Phillips' execution. His attorneys 
sought a delay because of questions regarding a new lethal injection method.

Phillips is scheduled to die Jan. 12.

(source: Akron Beacon Journal)

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

State parole board rejects mercy for Ronald Phillips, recommends execution 
sentence stand


The state Parole Board on Friday rejected the pleas for mercy from Ronald 
Phillips, the next man scheduled for execution in Ohio, recommending his death 
sentence stand.

Phillips, 43, was convicted in 1993 in Summit County of raping his girlfriend's 
3-year-old daughter and beating her to death.

Phillips is scheduled to be die by lethal injection Jan. 12. Ultimately Gov. 
John Kasich will decide his fate.

Pleas for mercy

Phillips' lawyers made his case for mercy at a clemency hearing last week. They 
argued that Phillips' background, dysfunctional upbringing and reformed 
character supported his request. And, they contended, mistakes and missteps by 
his trial lawyers had hindered his defense.

Lawyers from the Summit County prosecutor's office and the Ohio attorney 
general's office rejected those claims, countering it was time for justice to 
be served.

They questioned Phillips' honesty about abuse he claimed to have suffered as a 
child and about whether he had indeed accepted responsibility for his crimes.

And they contended the state has an obligation to consider the plight of the 
victim and acknowledge the tragedy of her short life.

A previous plea

This is the 2nd time Phillips has asked for clemency.

In 2013 the Parole Board rejected his pleas. "Words cannot convey the barbarity 
of the crime. It is simply unconscionable," the board said then in its report 
to Gov. John Kasich.

Kasich rejected that bid for clemency, but later delayed his execution when 
Phillips said he wanted to donate his organs to family members. The state 
ultimately rejected that request. Summit County Prosecutor Sheri Bevan Walsh, 
in a filing with the parole board before last week's hearing, described that 
effort as "bogus" misdirection.

What happens next?

The report from the parole board is a recommendation to the governor. 10 of 12 
members of the board recommended against reducing Phillips' death sentence. 2 
urged it be converted to life in prison without a chance of parole.

The Ohio Council of Churches and Faith in Public Life, in a statement Friday, 
urged Kasich to reject the recommendation and "demonstrate grace, mercy and 
redemption by refusing to allow executions in our state."

At this point Phillips would be the 1st person executed in Ohio in 3 years. 
Executions were halted in January 2014 after inmate Dennis McGuire took 25 
minutes to die.

In October the state announced it would resume executions in 2017, returning to 
a mix of drugs that it used from 1999 to 2009.

More than 2 dozen people on Ohio's death row have execution dates in 2017, 2018 
and 2019. 17 of those inmates have been on death row for at least 20 years. 5 
have been on death row for more than 30 years.

(source: cleveland.com)

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

Ohio's death-penalty secrecy shrouds too much crucial information for 
executions to resume: editorial


The Ohio Bill of Rights forbids the state from inflicting cruel and unusual 
punishments. But the shameful secrecy imposed by a 2014 Ohio law makes it 
impossible for citizens to judge whether the method the state plans to use 
starting next month to resume executing prisoners violates that prohibition or 
other aspects of Ohio law.

House Bill 663 imposes unacceptable secrecy on how Ohio carries out the death 
penalty and is is no way to fix the problem with the state's death penalty 
protocol, the editorial board writes.

We have long opposed capital punishment. It is erratically imposed -- more 
often than not, carried out against those without means. Death-penalty appeals 
cost taxpayers plenty and pain victims' families. And there's always the 
possibility an innocent person will be executed.

Yet whether an Ohioan favors or opposes the death penalty, there are serious 
questions about whether Ohio's administration of lethal injection is 
constitutional.

The state's 1st lethal injection law, signed 15 years ago by Republican Gov. 
Bob Taft, says Ohio must use "a drug or combination of drugs of sufficient 
dosage to quickly and painlessly cause death."

Convicted murderer Dennis McGuire isn't alive to testify whether his January 
2014 execution, Ohio's most recent, was painless. But his execution wasn't 
quick, after the state was forced to use an experimental combination of 2 drugs 
on McGuire because makers of a preferred drug in its execution cocktail had 
forbidden its use for executions.

A witness of McGuire's execution, Alan Johnson of The Columbus Dispatch, 
reported that, about 5 minutes after the drugs started flowing, McGuire visibly 
"struggled, made guttural noises, gasped for air and choked for about 10 
minutes" then "issued 2 final gasps and became still." It was 24 minutes into 
the process before he was pronounced dead.

True, as Johnson also reported, McGuire's death "wasn't the terrifying, brutal 
death he inflicted on his 22-year-old victim in 1989." The murder of Joy 
Stewart, of Preble County's West Alexandria, also denied life to her unborn 
son.

Ohio's next execution, the 1st since McGuire's, is set for Jan. 12, when Ronald 
Phillips is scheduled to die for the 1993 Summit County rape and murder of his 
girlfriend's 3-year-old daughter.

10 of 12 members of the Ohio Parole Board recommended Gov. John Kasich not 
reduce Phillips' death sentence. 2 urged it be converted to life in prison 
without a chance of parole.

For Phillips' execution, an Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction 
spokeswoman confirmed, the agency intends to use a 3 -drug mixture -- a 
combination of midazolam, rocuronium bromide and potassium chloride. The 
spokeswoman added that the department has "all 3 drugs in its possession" and 
that they're "FDA approved" but she would not comment as to the source, citing 
the 2014 shield law.

The blanket secrecy surrounding Ohio executions makes it impossible for Ohioans 
to know whether the state is overpaying for drugs and who is benefiting, or 
whether Ohio's constitutional ban on cruelty is being traduced in their names.

Executions in Ohio should not resume until this repugnant silence on a matter 
of grave public importance is lifted.

(source: Editorial Board, cleveland.com)