[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----GA., FLA., ARK., USA

[Rick Halperin]

Feb. 4



GEORGIA:

Georgia death row on my mind----I got Brandon Jones off death row 20 years ago. 
On Tuesday, the state of Georgia ended his life.


I knew I wouldn't sleep on Tuesday, when the state of Georgia geared up to 
execute Brandon Jones. At 72, Jones was the oldest prisoner to ever be killed 
there, and to me, he was no anonymous condemned prisoner: Jones was an old 
client of mine. More than 20 years ago, I got him off death row. Then, I moved 
away from Georgia, and some local lawyers managed to get him back on. His 
appeals failed; they made plans to end his life. So even though I was in London 
some 4,261 miles away, on Tuesday, my mind was on the Georgia Diagnostic and 
Classification Center, its euphemistic name for death row.

Brandon always insisted that while he had taken part in his alleged crime - a 
robbery of a convenience store in 1979 - his co-defendant, Van Solomon, was the 
one who shot Roger Tackett, the unfortunate and entirely innocent attendant. 
Solomon was electrocuted in 1985, despite the heroic efforts of my good friend, 
lawyer George Kendall. I was more fortunate: In 1989 I managed to persuade a 
federal judge to order a new sentencing trial to decide whether Brandon would 
live or die.

It was a curious issue that seemed to save Brandon's life. In talking to the 
jurors, I learned that they had illegally taken a Bible into their 
deliberations. They had not turned to Matthew 5:7 and read that "Blessed are 
the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy." Rather, they had relied on Exodus 
21:24: "You shall appoint as a penalty life for life, eye for eye, tooth for 
tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, bruise for 
bruise. ..." Because of this smuggled guidance, Brandon got a new sentencing 
trial.

By the time Brandon was on trial again, in 1994, I had moved to Louisiana to 
set up a death penalty charity, and could not commute hundreds of miles to Cobb 
County, Georgia, for the case. I found him an excellent lawyer, but he and 
Brandon had a falling out, and Brandon ended up with 2 court-appointed lawyers 
who had no idea what they were doing. Tom Charron, a bloodthirsty local 
District Attorney who seems to relish the association of his name with the 
mythological ferryman Charon on the River Styx, successfully urged the jury to 
call for a second death sentence. I have participated in the retrials of every 
other client whose sentence I managed to reverse, and won every time. Brandon 
was the solitary exception. In that way, I, too, failed him.

On the morning of Tuesday, February 1, Brandon's death had been sanctioned by 
the narrowest of margins. The issue was whether Georgia's new secrecy laws were 
valid: The state now refuses to allow access to information about the drugs 
being used in executions after a spate of embarrassing challenges to the 
execution protocol - some concerning botched executions, some concerning the 
right of pharmaceutical companies to object to the government using their 
life-saving drugs to kill people.

5 of the 11 judges on the federal court of appeals voted for a stay. "Today 
Brandon Jones will be executed, possibly in violation of the Constitution," 
Judge Robin Rosenbaum predicted. "He may also be cruelly and unusually punished 
in the process. But if he is, we will not know until it's too late - if ever."

Even at the 11th hour, the battle was not over. Sickening as it sounds, I have 
often received a stay from some judge, anywhere between Atlanta and Washington 
DC, within an hour of an execution. Here, Brandon's execution was set for 
midnight GMT, [7 p.m. in Georgia]. His current lawyers filed a flurry of last 
minute pleadings, and they won Brandon extra time and extra life - albeit 
perhaps only temporarily. So the clock edged around as Brandon sat in the 
holding cell, close by the execution chamber.

"Brandon, a septuagenarian, had to wait for death alone, with perhaps a guard 
stopping by his cell door for company."

Almost 30 years ago, in 1987, I sat with Edward Johnson, the young man 
immortalized in the BBC documentary "14 Days in May" as he awaited death in 
Mississippi's gas chamber. But society has moved on, and we are even less 
civilized, now. So Brandon, a septuagenarian, had to wait alone, with perhaps a 
guard stopping by his cell door for company. I have been in those rooms before, 
watching the clock move at once too fast and too slow towards the dial of the 
appointed hour. It is excruciating.

It was 4 a.m. GMT when Justice Clarence Thomas, at the Supreme Court in 
Washington, vacated the final stay of execution. Now, after 36 years, this 
allowed the "Diagnostic Center" to set about killing Brandon. Problem is, 
despite their appetite for death, they are not very good at it. No doctor may 
take part - the Hippocratic Oath forbids it - so some inept technician probed 
and prodded Brandon for an hour, trying to find a vein. In the end, they had to 
insert the needle in his groin.

A journalist who was present from the local paper wrote that Brandon "fought 
death." I know he would have, but that was another euphemism. What she meant 
was that they botched it. Georgia uses 1 drug to execute its prisoners - a 
medicine originally designed for patients with severe epilepsy. Since the 
medicine is made to save the lives of patients, not end the lives of prisoners, 
the manufacturer had forbidden its sale to prisons for use in executions. But 
instead of heeding the manufacturer's wishes, the state turned to a shady 
compounding pharmacy and paid the pharmacist to mix up unapproved versions of 
the product so they could go ahead with executions; presumably this was the 
same pharmacist that had previously mixed up drugs for Kelly Gissendaner's 
execution, which were found to have "white chunks" in what ought to have been a 
transparent solution.

Secrecy surrounding Georgia's execution protocol means that the public could 
obtain no assurances regarding the quality of the drugs injected into Brandon's 
groin in the early hours of this morning. Anecdotal evidence doesn't inspire 
confidence: While Brandon's eyes closed within a minute of the warden leaving 
the execution chamber, a full 6 minutes later, his eyes popped back open. 
According to the witnesses, he looked at a clock on the wall, and then appeared 
to look at the man who prosecuted him in 1979, Tom Charron, who was sitting on 
the front row of the witness area.

How I hate to think of what was happening then. Charron was sitting in the same 
chair when they executed Nicky Ingram 20 years ago. I remember the bald patch 
at the back of Charron's head, and how he could not keep eye contact when I 
looked at him. I doubt he could hold Brandon's eye either.

When I would leave that execution chamber, always in the early hours, I 
invariably looked up at the stars - the same stars looking down on Brandon as 
he died were hovering over London last night.

And I have always asked myself: Did that ghastly event in there really make it 
a more civilized world?

(source: Clive Stafford Smith is the founder and director of Reprieve----Al 
Jazeera)






FLORIDA:

Florida Supreme Court orders new trial for Spaniard on death row


The Florida Supreme Court on Thursday overturned the murder conviction of 
Spaniard Pablo Ibar, who has been imprisoned for almost 22 years, 15 of them on 
death row.

The 4-3 decision means Ibar will get a new trial on charges he took part in the 
1994 murders of nightclub owner Casimir "Butch Casey" Sucharski, 48, and models 
Sharon Anderson and Marie Rogers, both 25.

One of the high court's key findings in ordering a new trial was that Ibar's 
DNA was not found on the t-shirt recovered from the murder scene that the 
killer used to partially cover his face.

Ibar, 45, has always maintained his innocence, and his defense team emphasized 
in their appeal the lack of reliability in the DNA test, a blurred, grainy and 
soundless video recorded by security cameras at Sucharski's home and the 
testimony of a facial recognition expert that they said was unreliable.

The black-and-white video shows 2 individuals with their faces covered looking 
for objects of value in the home.

At the end of the tape, 1 of the men uncovers his face and, despite the poor 
quality of the image, the prosecution said at trial that the person was Ibar.

In an April 2014 hearing before the Supreme Court, defense attorney Benjamin 
Waxman insisted that Ibar had an ineffective defense at his first trial due to 
the "disastrous" representation he got from public defender Kayo Morgan.

"It's a time of great emotion for which we've been waiting a long time. The 
road is opening for Ibar to finally be able to prove his innocence," Andres 
Krakenberger, the spokesman for the Association Against the Death Penalty for 
Pablo Ibar, told EFE.

The man convicted in 2000 along with Ibar, Seth Pe???alver, received a new 
trial in 2012 and was acquitted on all charges.

(source: Fox News)

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

Cop killer Dontae Morris seeks to overturn death sentence


The convicted killer of 2 Tampa police officers wants his death sentence 
reduced to life as a result of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that struck down 
Florida's death penalty sentencing law.

Dontae Morris, 30, is on death row at Florida State Prison in Starke, where he 
is also serving a life term for a 3rd Tampa murder.

He was sentenced to death for killing Tampa police officers David Curtis and 
Jeffrey Kocab in 2010. He shot both officers in the head at close range as he 
was being taken into custody during a traffic stop.

Morris is among the first of dozens of convicted felons seeking to have their 
death sentences overturned by the Supreme Court because a judge, and not a 
Hillsborough County jury, made the critical findings of fact in his case. That 
system, used for decades, was held to be unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme 
Court in the case of Hurst vs. Florida.

"In this case, this death sentence has to be vacated," Morris' attorney, 
Cynthia Dodge, told the Supreme Court in oral arguments Wednesday. Dodge asked 
the court to lift Morris' death sentence three days after the Hurst decision.

The justices could uphold Morris' death sentence, reduce his sentence to life 
or order a new trial.

Another death row inmate, Michael King of Sarasota, made similar arguments 
Thursday. King was convicted of the abduction, rape and murder of a North Port 
mother of 2 children, Denise Lee, in 2009.

"Mr. King is entitled to an automatic life sentence," his lawyer argued in 
papers filed with the court.

The state's high court is also keeping a watchful eye on the Legislature. The 
Hurst case has forced legislators to rewrite state law to require juries to 
make unanimous all findings of aggravating factors that must exist to justify a 
death sentence.

But Senior Assistant Attorney General Carol Dittmar argued that Morris' appeal 
should be rejected because the death penalty itself has not been held to be 
unconstitutional by the Hurst case.

"It's very narrow. It's very easy to fix," Dittmar told justices.

The fix, she said, is a new special verdict form to be given to juries in 
capital cases in which they find aggravating factors.

But Justice Barbara Pariente appeared openly skeptical of her argument.

"We put the jury front and center in the most critical decisions in this 
criminal justice system," she said. "So to say it's just procedural, I think, 
flies in the face of what our country has been about."

Morris is 1 of the 43 so-called pipeline cases whose direct appeals are coming 
up for review by the Florida Supreme Court in the immediate aftermath of the 
Hurst decision.

The state court on Tuesday granted an indefinite stay of execution to Michael 
Lambrix, 55, a convicted double murderer who was scheduled to die Feb. 11.

The Supreme Court on Thursday also reversed the death sentence of Pablo Ibar, 
who was sentenced to death for 3 notorious Broward County murders in what were 
known as the Casey's Nickelodeon killings, named for a bar by that name owned 
by one of the victims.

Ibar, 43, has maintained his innocence, presenting an alibi defense at trial. 
His co-defendant, Seth Penalver, was acquitted at his retrial.

In a 5-2 decision, justices said Ibar's rights were violated as a result of a 
poor representation by his defense lawyer, Kayo Morgan, and is entitled to a 
new trial.

(source: Tampa Bay Times)






ARKANSAS:

Arkansas Lawyer Asks For Mulligan In Death Penalty Conviction


Arkansas' high court says a death row inmate isn't entitled to a new sentencing 
hearing just because his lawyer may have delivered "one of the worst" closing 
arguments of his career.

The Arkansas Supreme Court Thursday reversed a Benton County judge's order for 
a new hearing and asked the lower court to reconsider the request with a more 
objective test to determine if Brandon Lacy's lawyer performed adequately.

Lacy was sentenced to death after he was found guilty of capital murder and 
aggravated robbery in the 2007 slaying of Randall Walker.

The Supreme Court's order also denied a separate appeal from Lacy. He said his 
lawyer failed because he did not argue Lacy had a mental defect because of 
alleged alcohol-fueled blackouts and memory lapses.

(source: Associated Press)






USA:

PBS revisits notorious Leopold and Loeb case in 'The Perfect Crime'


It was a time of unease for middle-aged Middle Americans. They were worried 
about their sons and daughters - the weird music, the scanty clothing - and 
also about the way the super-rich were getting away with everything.

The headlines told of the strange case of teenagers, convicted killers, who got 
off easy through their lawyer's novel defense that the boys were victims of 
affluent parents who hadn't taught them right from wrong.

Sounds like today, but it was actually 1924, when 2 19-year-olds, both from 
wealthy Jewish families in Chicago, committed a horrendous crime but cheated 
the hangman's noose thanks to a novel defense by their famous lawyer.

The trial of Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb, which riveted the nation and the 
world, will be re-examined Feb. 9 when PBS airs "The Perfect Crime" as part of 
its "American Experience" series.

Both Leopold and Loeb, raised by governesses in the lap of luxury, came to 
visualize themselves as incarnations of German philosopher Friedrich 
Nietzsche's Ubermensch - as supermen so brilliant and exceptional as to be 
bound by neither law nor morality.

The 2 became lovers, with the handsome and charismatic Loeb as the dominant 
partner. They initially tested their theory with petty crimes, but then, at 19, 
went for the big time.

They decided to commit the perfect crime, one they believed would never be 
traced to them, by picking up Bobby Franks - a 2nd cousin of Loeb - in their 
car, first killing him with a chisel and pouring acid over his face and body to 
obscure distinguishing marks, then stuffing the corpse into a culvert.

The "perfect," untraceable crime collapsed almost immediately. Franks' body was 
discovered by a passerby, a pair of nearby glasses was traced to Leopold, and 
the murderers' alibis quickly fell apart.

Both men confessed that they had committed the murder for the thrill of it, 
while Leopold compared his deed to an entomologist dissecting an insect for 
further study.

At the trial, the 2 defendants, elegantly dressed, were unrepentant, smiling 
and smirking. A death penalty seemed inevitable. At one point in the process, 
when the prosecution hinted that the defendants had sexually molested Franks 
before killing him, the judge, John Caverly, ordered all female reporters to 
leave the court room so as not to soil their delicate ears - even though the 
word "moron" or "sex moron" was frequently substituted for "homosexual" at the 
time.

Desperate, the parents of Leopold and Loeb hired Clarence Darrow, the country's 
top criminal lawyer and an ardent opponent of the death penalty, to defend 
their sons and, specifically, to spare them from hanging.

With world attention focused on the case, Darrow pleaded his clients guilty to 
avoid a jury trial, thereby leaving the final verdict to the judge. He then 
proceeded to offer a groundbreaking psychological defense, arguing that his 
clients were not perpetrators but victims of stunted emotional growth, that 
Leopold had been sexually abused by his governess, and, for the 1st time, 
introducing Freudian concepts in an American trial.

Darrow called a string of psychiatrists (then called "alienists") to the 
witness stand and 2,000 Chicagoans lined up hoping to hear Darrow's final 3-day 
summation.

Surprisingly, in an era of rampant anti-Semitism fueled by the KKK and Henry 
Ford, the defendants' Jewishness, accompanied by their arrogance, was rarely 
mentioned in reports of the trial.

In a phone interview, Cathleen O'Connell, producer and director of the hourlong 
documentary, said that she and her staff spent much time checking coverage of 
the trial in the general and Jewish media and found hardly any allusions to the 
defendants' ethnicity and religion.

However, she did come across one article in the Chicago Tribune quoting a 
Jewish "spokesman" as observing that Loeb and Leopold's crime was due to their 
neglect of Judaism, O'Connell said.

1 explanation may be that their victim, Franks, was Jewish himself, although 
his parents had converted to Christian Science.

What made O'Connell's research most difficult, she said, was the absence of any 
newsreel coverage of the trial, and the judge, believing the testimony would be 
too salacious for the general public, aborted any radio broadcasts of the 
trial.

O'Connell contrasted this lack of firsthand material to the extensive coverage 
of the "Scopes Monkey Trial" 1 year later, in which Darrow defended a 
schoolteacher accused of violating Tennessee law by teaching evolution to his 
students. It was the 1st trial that allowed Americans to follow the proceedings 
by radio.

The documentary fills much of the gap through extensive use of still photos and 
by actors conveying the voices and personas of the main participants.

"The Perfect Crime" premieres at 9 p.m. Feb. 9 on KOCE, the PBS SoCal station.

(source: jewishjournal.com)