[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, CONN., VA., N.C., GA., FLA., ALA., MISS., LA.

[Rick Halperin]

Feb. 11



TEXAS----impending execution

Death Watch: Double Death Penalty----Garcia, convicted of capital murder, 
contends that his confessions were improperly admitted as evidence


In Jan. 1991, 19-year-old Gustavo Garcia, his wife, and a 3rd accomplice, 
15-year-old Christopher Vargas, stepped into a Plano convenience store for a 
robbery and ultimately shot and killed the store clerk, 18-year-old Gregory 
Martin, while he was on the phone with his pregnant girlfriend. The girlfriend, 
who heard the shotgun blast, called police, who arrived on the scene to find 
Garcia's wife, Sheila Maria Garcia, outside by a gas pump. Garcia was hiding 
inside one of the store's coolers.

During interrogations, police were able to link Garcia to the December slaying 
of 43-year-old Plano liquor store clerk Craig Turski. Garcia confessed to that 
murder via written statement: "I killed the clerk with the shotgun," he wrote. 
He was charged with capital murder for both slayings but only tried in Turski's 
death. Vargas was convicted of capital murder in Martin's death and sentenced 
to life in prison.

Garcia went to trial in Dec. 1991. On Dec. 19, he was handed the death penalty. 
A Dec. 1994 decision from the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals overturned the 
decision, however, noting that Garcia's written confession did not include the 
necessary language indicating that Garcia "knowing[ly], intelligent[ly], and 
voluntar[il]y" waived his right to remain silent during interrogations. The 
sentence was later reinstated during a follow-up hearing.

In late Nov. 1998, Garcia was 1 of 7 inmates in Huntsville's Ellis Unit who 
took part in an elaborate attempt to escape the prison. One succeeded, though 
he drowned in a lake shortly after jumping the prison wall. Garcia and 5 others 
surrendered while still on the Huntsville grounds.

In June 2000, Garcia was granted a new sentencing hearing (along with 5 others) 
after the Texas Attorney General learned that former Texas Department of 
Criminal Justice Chief Psychologist Dr. Walter Quijano testified that Garcia 
could be a continued threat to society if he was given a life sentence simply 
because he was Hispanic. But Garcia was handed another death sentence in March 
of 2001.

On Jan. 19, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to review Garcia's case without 
comment. Through his attorneys, Garcia, now 42, continues to contend that his 
confessions were improperly admitted as evidence, and that he did not receive 
adequate counseling during his trial. With his execution scheduled for Feb. 16, 
Garcia stands to be the 3rd Texan executed this year, and the 534th since the 
state reinstated the death penalty in 1976.

(source: Austin Chronicle)

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

Court upholds death penalty for man who killed Ofc. Jaime Padron


The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has issued an option to uphold the death 
penalty for the man who is currently on death row for the 2012 murder of Austin 
Police Officer Jaime Padron.

After reviewing Brandon Daniel's case, the court ruled the case had no merit 
and, "Consequently, we affirm the trial court's judgment and sentence of 
death." When an individual is sentenced to death, the case is automatically 
appealed to the Court of Criminal Appeals.

Daniel was found guilty of capital murder and sentenced to death in February 
2014. A few weeks after his trial, Daniel sent Judge Brenda Kennedy a letter 
stating why he wanted to waive any and all of his appeals.

In the letter, Daniel wrote: "I want justice to be served and I feel that the 
punishment is appropriate for my crime; we are both interested in saving the 
taxpayer's money, the time of all involved and in sparing my family and the 
victim's family anymore angst than necessary; and finally, I would like to 
limit my time in prison to the least amount possible."

By waiving all appeals, officials say the execution process could happen within 
2 years. The Texas Department of Criminal Justice says inmates that receive 
capital punishment stay on death row an average of nearly 11 years before being 
put to death.

(source: KXAN news)

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

Attorney: Death penalty may be out in family massacre case


The attorney for a man accused of fatally shooting 8 people at a suburban 
Houston home says his client may be intellectually disqualified for a death 
sentence if convicted.

Philip Scardino is the lead attorney for David Ray Conley, who's charged with 3 
capital murder counts and accused of shooting dead his estranged ex-girlfriend, 
her husband and 6 children, including his own son.

Scardino tells the Houston Chronicle (http://bit.ly/20ML6Pw) that Conley is 
undergoing tests and the results aren't yet available, but there's some 
indication that that he may have "an intellectual disability."

The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that the intellectually disabled are 
disqualified from execution.

Harris County District Attorney Devon Anderson has made no decision yet on 
whether a death sentence will be sought in Conley's prosecution.

(source: Associated Press)

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

2nd investigator in probe of slain Texas deputy fired for misconduct


An investigator in the fatal ambush shooting of a Houston-area deputy has been 
fired for inappropriate behavior, the Harris County Sheriff's Office said on 
Wednesday, making him the second person in the probe to be terminated.

The office said it had fired Deputy M. DeLeon on Tuesday for being untruthful 
in the course of the investigation into the death of Harris County Sheriff's 
Deputy Darren Goforth.

Goforth, 47, was fatally shot in a hail of bullets on Aug. 28 as he fueled a 
patrol car at a Houston-area gas station.

The suspected shooter, Shannon Miles, 31, was committed this week to a state 
mental hospital for 120 days after prosecutors found he was not competent to 
stand trial at this time. Miles has been charged with capital murder, which is 
punishable by death.

In October, the Harris County Sheriff's office fired Sergeant Craig Clopton, a 
homicide investigator, after a receiving a report that he had sexual relations 
with a witness in the case.

Clopton had "consensual sexual relations" with the same woman who has claimed 
she had been in a sexual relationship with Goforth, court papers said.

Defense attorneys have argued that Goforth was filling up his patrol car while 
on his way to meet the woman cited in the case. The move is seen as an attempt 
to argue that the deputy was not on duty at the time he was killed and Miles 
should not face the death penalty.

(source: Reuters)






CONNECTICUT:

The Death Penalty and Stare Decisis


We have recently opined that the Connecticut Supreme Court was right to abolish 
the death penalty entirely last year in State v. Santiago. At the beginning of 
this year, state prosecutors argued to the Supreme Court in State v. Peeler 
that Santiago should be overruled. The only significant new development in 
Peeler is the retirement of 1 of the 4 justices in the 4-3 majority in 
Santiago. So naturally, the arguments of Peeler's lawyers focused on stare 
decisis.

In our view the reason Santiago should be followed is that it was correctly 
decided, not because of stare decisis.

Death penalty decisions have always contained strong opinions from both sides. 
The Supreme Court frequently overrules decisions - recent as well as otherwise 
- whenever the majority believes "the most cogent reasons and inescapable logic 
require it."

Even a cursory glance at the dissenting opinions in Santiago shows that that 
test is met in the minds of the 3 dissenters. Whatever opinion the 1 new 
justice who did not sit on the Santiago panel has, it is unlikely to be any 
less vigorous than that of the justices on one side or the other in Santiago.

Stare decisis, in fact, has played a much diminished role concerning the 
constitutionality of the death penalty since the first modern case, State v. 
Ross, in 1994. 3 justices and 2 lower court judges decided Ross in a 4-1 
decision. A year later, a 4th justice, Justice Richard Palmer, sat for the 1st 
time. Both sides reconsidered the issue de novo in State v. Breton and again 
split 4-1. One more year later, Justices Flemming Norcott Jr. and Joette Katz 
sat for the 1st time during death penalty arguments in State v. Webb as part of 
a 5-judge court. Before that decision was released, Chief Justice Ellen Peters 
and, for the 1st time, Justice David Borden sat. Both sides once again 
reconsidered the issue de novo and split 4-3. Ironically, the 5-judge panel 
probably would have decided the issue 3-2 the other way, subject, of course, to 
reconsideration en banc.

In no other issue than the death penalty would the justices in Webb have 
considered it significant that only 3 justices sat in Ross and only 4 in 
Breton. Since 1996, the issue has come up a number of times and the dissenters 
have never stopped dissenting.

Nor should they. The death penalty is an issue of unequaled moral significance 
for both sides. No justices on either side of the issue are likely to be - or 
should be - lukewarm. Stare decisis is important, but the death penalty is 
unique; relying on stare decisis diminishes its moral character.

Santiago should be affirmed because it is the right decision. Period.

(source: Editorial, ctlawtribune.com)






VIRGINIA:

Execute Like It's 1908


In 1908, Virginia legislators patted themselves on the back for "progressive" 
law #398, introduced by Henrico Delegate Throckmorton, titled "An Act to 
establish a permanent place in the State penitentiary at Richmond Virginia for 
the execution of felons upon whom the death penalty is to be imposed, and to 
change the mode of execution so that the death sentence shall be by 
electricity," and passed March 16 of that year.

The new law modernized capital punishment in the Commonwealth. By eliminating 
the barbaric spectacles of hangings, and installing an electric chair in the 
basement of the State Penitentiary on Spring Street, death sentences would 
forever after be carried out in secret, seen only by a handful of handpicked 
witnesses. There would be no photography or filming, and no media coverage.

Prior to #398, criminals from across Virginia were sometimes transported to 
Richmond to be "hanged from the neck until dead, dead, dead" or put to death in 
their own localities or where the crime occurred. To the dismay of prison 
officials, huge crowds sometimes flocked to the gallows to witness these public 
performances. 1 of those hanged in 1787 was a slave named Clem, who had been 
convicted of 2 murders. Clem was 12 years old.

Those convicted of grand larceny in the 1700s, however, were not killed; they 
were released after having their hands doused with coal oil and horribly 
burned. While the hangings did not upset the crowds, the burnings certainly 
did, and citizens successfully petitioned the courts for solitary confinement 
for these convictions instead of "torture" by burning.

Hanging was unreliable. In 2 instances in 1902 and 1905 the drop failed to 
break the prisoners' necks, and instead they strangled to death, pitching and 
kicking. 1 took 14 minutes to die.

While in 1908 the electric chair was considered progressive; in 2016 it is a 
medieval torture device, best relegated to the museums. Instead, it has found 
new life in the 2016 General Assembly with House Bill 815, a bill to change the 
default method of execution back to the chair if lethal injection drugs are not 
available. This Bill just passed the House February 10 on a vote of 62-33.

Virginia's chair currently at Greenville Correctional in Jarratt is the same 
straight-back oak armchair built by penitentiary inmates in the summer of 1908, 
and wired by the Adams Electric Company of Trenton New Jersey at an 
appropriated cost of $1,000. Although its original wiring has been upgraded, 
the brutality of its killing is unchanged.

On August 10, 1982, it took 2 55-second jolts of electricity to kill Frank J. 
Coppola. The 2nd jolt set his head and legs on fire, filling the death chamber 
from floor to ceiling with rancid smoke.

On October 17, 1990, when Wilbert Lee Evans was hit with the first burst of 
electricity, blood spewed from the right side of the mask on his face, 
drenching his shirt. Evans continued to moan before a 2nd jolt of electricity 
was required to kill him. The autopsy concluded that the voltage surge elevated 
his high blood pressure.

2 cycles of electricity, applied 4 minutes apart failed to kill Derick Lynn 
Peterson on August 22, 1991. Prison physician Dr. David Barnes inspected 
Peterson with a stethoscope, announcing each time "He has not expired." 7 
minutes after the 1st attempt to kill Peterson, a 2nd cycle of electricity had 
to be applied.

It is perplexing that Virginia considers herself progressive in so many areas 
yet wishes to apply the death penalty the same way she did 108 years ago. We 
may as well step back just 1 more year, to 1907, and strip away the veils of 
secrecy behind electrocutions and make them public again. Allow all 3 news 
channels to cover the execution in all its violent, lurching glory and put the 
event on prime time. Stream it live online so that everyone gets a taste of 
what is going on down in Jarratt. Pack a sandwich. If we are going to do it, we 
need to do it right.

And, as for live witnesses to the executions, I suggest the 62 House members 
who voted yes on HB 815.

(source: Op-Ed; Dale Brumfield is an author and Digital Archaeologist from 
Doswell, Virginia----bearingdrift.com)






NORTH CAROLINA:

Jurors hear from investigators, witness graphic video of North Hills murder 
scene


Various City-County Bureau of Identification agents took the stand Wednesday in 
the trial of Travion Smith, who is charged with 1st-degree murder in the death 
of a mother in her North Hills apartment in May 2013. But so far, there has 
been no direct link from the murder scene to Smith.

Smith, 23, is 1 of 3 people charged in connection to 30-year-old Melissa 
Huggins-Jones' death and could face the death penalty if convicted.

Huggins-Jones was new to the Triangle, having divorced and moved from Tennessee 
to an apartment complex off Six Forks Road with her 8-year-old daughter, Hannah 
Olivia Jones. Her son had stayed behind with his father in Tennessee to finish 
the school year.

On the morning of May 14, 2013, Hannah wandered out of the apartment and 
approached a nearby construction crew, asking for help. A construction worker 
followed the girl back into the apartment and found Huggins-Jones dead in her 
bed, covered in blood.

An autopsy determined she had died from repeated blows to her head and neck.

On Wednesday, Tracy Gold, 1 of 4 CCBI agents that testified, talked in detail 
about physical evidence she collected and processed from the crime scene.

During cross-examination, she outlined the process she used to collect 
fingerprints and shoe impressions.

Agent Mike Galloway took the stand and introduced a video he took of the crime 
scene. The video showed exterior and interior views of Huggins-Jones' 
apartment. At times, the graphic video caused an emotional reaction from family 
members and others watching the trial.

CCBI Supervisor Chris Hill also took the stand Wednesday and testified that he 
collected Huggins-Jones' clothing, fingerprints, nail clippings and sexual 
assault kit during the autopsy. He showed the jury Huggins-Jones' bloody shirt 
and pants she was wearing the night she was killed.

Testimony from Special Agent MacKenzie DeHaan was cut short as the trial 
recessed at 5 p.m. DeHaan, a forensic biologist, was asked by crime scene 
investigators to examine various items and samples collected from the scene for 
DNA evidence.

Ronald Lee Anthony and Sarah Rene Redden are also charged in Huggins-Jones' 
death. Anthony pleaded guilty in 2015 to 1st-degree murder, to avoid the death 
penalty, and was sentenced to life in prison. He may testify against Smith. 
Redden, of Wake Forest, has not been offered a plea deal, but testified against 
Smith last week.

The trial resumes as DeHaan takes the stand Thursday at 9:30 a.m.

(source: wral.com)






GEORGIA:

Ga. Lethal Injection Secrecy Law Is Constitutional


A death row inmate failed to persuade a sharply divided en banc panel of the 
Eleventh Circuit Feb. 2 that he should be allowed to pierce Georgia's lethal 
injection secrecy law in order to collect information that would help him 
challenge the constitutionality of the state's death penalty protocol.

By a slim 6-5 vote, the judges voted to deny en banc review and paved the way 
for the inmate's execution on Feb. 3.

But the closeness of the vote and a strongly worded dissent has given some hope 
to those who say states shouldn't be allowed to shroud their execution 
procedures in secrecy.

"I think that the closeness of the vote and the emphasis in the majority 
opinion on the timing of the challenge suggests that another challenge brought 
earlier by another death row inmate might obtain a different result," Death 
Penalty Information Center Executive Director Robert Dunham told Bloomberg BNA.

No Due Process Right-of-Access

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit's en banc decision let stand 
a Feb. 1 panel ruling, which held that Brandon Jones had no due process right 
to discover the information shielded by Georgia's stringent secrecy law, Ga. 
Code #42-5-36.

Jones's lawyers insisted that the law, which blocked the convicted murderer 
from learning anything about the specific drug sources Georgia relies on or the 
qualifications of those who administer those drugs, violated his right to due 
process because it interfered with his ability to make a case that the protocol 
presents a risk of severe pain that is substantial when compared to the known 
and available alternatives.

But the panel, in an opinion by Judge Stanley Marcus, shot the challenge down, 
noting that it had rejected a similar attack in 2014 and adding that no other 
circuit court has recognized this type of due process right-of-access 
challenge.

Judge William H. Pryor Jr. joined Marcus in ruling against Jones, but Judge 
Charles Reginald Wilson dissented.

Jones - who at 72 was Georgia's oldest death row inmate - was put to death 
almost 37 years after he and an accomplice murdered a convenience store clerk 
during a botched robbery. Jones's accomplice was executed decades ago.

Secrecy Under Siege

Federal challenges to similar secrecy statutes in Arkansas, Missouri, Ohio and 
Louisiana have failed in the Fifth and Eighth circuits and in a federal 
district court in Ohio.

An Arkansas judge in December 2015 overturned the state's execution secrecy law 
and directed the department of corrections to disclose the drugs it will use in 
executions and the sources of those drugs.

A day later, however, the Arkansas Supreme Court stayed that order and is now 
accepting briefs from the parties.

The inmates in that case are arguing that without disclosure of the source and 
other information they have no way to determine whether the midazolam, 
vecuronium bromide or potassium chloride obtained by the state will cause them 
to experience a demonstrated risk of severe pain and that the risk is 
substantial when compared to the known and available alternatives.

Cash-Filled Envelopes

Various news organizations have filed suits in Arizona, Missouri, Pennsylvania 
and Oklahoma claiming that the secrecy provisions - dubbed "black hood" laws on 
the notion that executioners in days of yore wore black shrouds to preserve 
their anonymity - violate the First Amendment and various state "sunshine" 
laws.

"The only way to effectively determine whether a policy is being properly 
administered and carried out is to have access to the information concerning 
the administration of that policy," Dunham said.

"Secrecy is not only antithetical to traditional notions of good government, 
it's bad public policy," he added, because it can be used to shield 
incompetence or wrongdoing. "Sunshine is the best disinfectant," he said.

Dunham cited a recent report from BuzzFeed news indicating that Missouri's 
concern for secrecy has led it to pay its executioners with "envelopes of cash" 
in transactions that likely violated federal tax reporting requirements.

Proven Track Record

Marcus wrote both the panel decision and the opinion for the six-member 
majority that denied Jones's petition for en banc review.

Marcus said that the full court wouldn't hear the case for the reasons stated 
in the panel order denying Jones's motion for stay and then offered some 
"additional thoughts."

Jones's petition was not only barred because it runs counter to Eleventh 
Circuit precedent and the trend in other circuits, Marcus said, but also 
because Jones couldn't identify any liberty interest that was jeopardized by 
the Georgia protocol.

Even if the court overruled existing precedent and struck down Georgia's 
statute, Jones still wouldn't be able to plead a known and available 
alternative source of pentobarbital, Marcus said.

"[W]e ought to be particularly reluctant to interfere in Georgia's enforcement 
of its lethal injection protocol since its current protocol - using compounded 
pentobarbital provided by an undisclosed source - has actually been used at 
least 7 times in the last year, without incident," Marcus wrote.

Untimely Challenge

In any event, Marcus added, the "equities" were not in Jones's favor because 
stays of execution are disfavored when the claim could've been brought in a 
more timely manner. Jones waited almost 3 years after the secrecy law was 
passed and only filed suit in federal court at the end of December 2015, Marcus 
noted.

Jones seeks a "newly created federal due process right to pre-litigation 
discovery," Marcus said, "all in the hope that learning the identity of the 
manufacturer will somehow provide a springboard to establish a potential, if 
currently unidentifiable, infirmity in Georgia's execution protocol."

"That asks us to do too much," Marcus said.

Chief Judge Edward Earl Carnes and Judges Gerald B. Tjoflat, Frank M. Hull, 
William H. Pryor Jr. and Julie E. Carnes joined Marcus's opinion.

Macabre Catch-22

In a dissent joined by Judges Beverly B. Martin, Robin S. Rosenbaum, and Jill 
Pryor, Judge Charles Reginald Wilson argued that the secrecy provision denies 
death row prisoners the "basic ingredient of due process" by preventing them 
from accessing information necessary to protect their Eighth Amendment rights.

Judges Rosenbaum and Jordan added separate dissents, arguing that the Georgia 
law has "constitutional problems."

According to Dunham, death row inmates in states with secrecy laws like the one 
in Georgia, are in a "Catch-22" situation.

"They're already dealing with the macabre requirement from Glossip v. Gross, 
that they have the burden of coming forward with a different way to terminate 
their own life," he said.

Now they have to try to meet that burden even though the state won't give them 
access to the information they need to meet that test, he added.

Jones was represented by the Federal Defender Program, Atlanta, and McDermott 
Will & Emery LLP, Chicago. The Georgia Department of Corrections was 
represented by the Georgia Attorney General's Office, Atlanta.

(source: Bloomberg BNA)






FLORIDA:

Another judge says FL has no death penalty


Another in a growing list of Florida judges has said the state does not have a 
death penalty until it addresses a U.S. Supreme Court ruling.

Defense attorney Jeff Brown said he was not surprised when Hillsborough County 
Judge Samantha Ward blocked prosecutors from seeking the death penalty in a 
murder case involving Carlos Rivas.

"Judge Ward has recognized what everybody already knew, that Florida doesn't 
have the death penalty. The U.S. Supreme Court has said the death penalty 
statue we have is unconstitutional," said Brown.

In November of 2012, prosecutors say Rivas killed a homeless man after stealing 
his money.

With his trial set to start in April and a death sentence looming over him, 
Rivas was likely relieved to hear Judge Ward say this:

"OK, based on the Hurst decision that concluded that Florida's capitol 
sentencing scheme is unconstitutional, I believe there currently exists no 
statutory authority in Florida in which the state can seek the death penalty, 
or there is no statutory authority where the court can impose the death 
penalty. I'm going to grant the defendant's motion to preclude the death 
penalty as a possible sentence."

Hillsborough State Prosecutors argued the court did not strike down the death 
penalty itself. They say the U.S. Supreme Court's decision only applies to the 
sentencing process in which the jury recommends life or death, but the judge 
makes the final decision.

"It's like being on the Titanic and just saying, 'full steam ahead. Let's just 
keep going, there's an iceberg there,' Brown said. "We don't have a statue. The 
idea that we will continue to seek the death penalty without a statue and 
hoping it gets fixed beforehand is crazy to me."

The situation has not stopped prosecutors from seeking the death penalty. In 
early February, prosecutors said Marisol Best, accused of killing her in-laws 
in November, will face a death sentence, if convicted. Expect that decision to 
be challenged by her attorneys soon.

(source: Fox News)






ALABAMA:

Alabama Gunman Kills 2, Including Former Business Partner


A gunman fatally shot 2 people, 1 a former business partner, at a law firm and 
a nearby accountant's office in western Alabama on Wednesday morning, 
authorities said.

The suspect, 57-year-old Jimmy Cooper, was shot in the arm and leg before being 
taken into custody, Marion County District Attorney Jack Bostick said at a news 
conference.

Cooper faces 2 capital murder charges in the deaths of Donny Miller, 67, and 
Linda Cole, 61. Miller was Cooper's former business partner and Cooper was a 
client of Cole's, Bostick said.

Court records show Cooper had owned an insulation company and was ordered to 
pay more than $59,000 in a 2010 lawsuit. A lawsuit Miller filed in 2014, said 
that he, Cooper and Cooper's daughter had been partners in a foam insulation 
business. Miller had the lawsuit dismissed in June.

Police haven't released a motive in the shootings in Hamilton, a city of 
roughly 6,800 about 90 miles northwest of Birmingham. The district attorney 
says he plans to pursue the death penalty.

Sheriff Kevin Williams said deputies were at the county courthouse close to the 
scene when Cooper tried to flee. Deputies and police confronted Cooper, but it 
was unclear who shot him. Senior Trooper Johnathan Appling said in an emailed 
statement that a civilian assisted law enforcement officers. The State Bureau 
of Investigation is looking into the incident.

The sheriff said Cooper was apprehended behind a nearby bank after he was shot 
and had made it clear he wasn't going to surrender.

"He had full intentions of killing law enforcement or putting them in the 
situation where they had to protect themselves," Alabama Secretary of Law 
Enforcement Spencer Collier said.

"It's put everyone in shock," Bostick said. "Obviously, this is not something 
anyone ever anticipates or expects. I would say the entire community is just 
stunned at this point."

Cooper was taken to the University of Alabama at Birmingham Hospital with 
injuries that weren't life threatening. It was unclear whether he had an 
attorney.

Williams used the shooting as an opportunity to call for increased funding for 
mental health services.

The sheriff said one of Cooper's relatives signed a commitment order on him in 
July. He was taken to a behavioral health center in Jasper for an evaluation 
and was released, Williams said. The sheriff later added that authorities are 
investigating how Cooper got the handgun that was used in the shooting.

"It's certainly a problem; it's certainly something we need to address," 
Republican state Sen. Gerald Dial, chairman of the Alabama Senate Health and 
Human Services Committee, said of Williams' call for increased mental health 
services funding. "We've not done that as I would like to see it done in the 
past few years."

Too often, law enforcement is faced with handling suspects who are in need of 
mental health services, Williams said.

"We have a problem with mental patients with guns," Williams said. "Our problem 
in the state of Alabama - we have nowhere to put them. Our county jails are 
being flooded with mental patients that we legally can't really take care of; 
we're not trained fully."

A December 2015 report by the Treatment Advocacy Center said that despite the 
U.S. population doubling since the 1950s, the number of public psychiatric beds 
has dropped by more than 90 %. The report also said severe mental illness is 
thought to be a factor in up to half of all deadly law enforcement encounters.

(source: ABC news)






MISSISSIPPI:

Mississippi death penalty on hold; US Court of Appeals denied executions 
blocking


A US federal court of appeals blocked an injunction that halted Mississippi's 
executions using lethal injections. The court of appeals said that the lower 
court ill-treated its discretion when it barred the use of particular injection 
drugs.

In August, US District Judge Henry T. Wingate issued a preliminary order which 
blocks the state from executing prisoners. However, the 5th Circuit US Court of 
Appeals said that Judge Wingate's ruling was incorrect. Moreover, one of the 
juries at the Circuit, Judge Walker Elrod rejected the arguments coming from 
the death row prisoners, as reported by ABC News. The prisoners who are to face 
death penalty said that Mississippi can't execute them since the state will not 
be using a certain class of drugs required by the state law.

The death row inmates who brought the lawsuit argue that the state's protocol 
for execution infringes the state requirement that an 'ultra-short-acting 
barbiturate or other similar drug' be used. The death row prisoners then 
pointed the possible use of pentobarbital, as reported by Buzzfeed.

The lawyer for the 2 death row inmates who challenged the protocol said that 
the executions in Mississippi are unlikely to restart immediately. Attorney Jim 
Craig said that the inmates will seek for more injunctions against the state's 
method of execution as Yahoo News reported. The lawyer also said that they 
could request a review of the case by the full 5th Circuit US Court of Appeals, 
but have not yet decided.

Republican Governor, Phil Bryant also released a statement saying that 'the 5th 
Circuit's ruling affirms his belief' that Mississippi is legally administering 
the death penalty. Meanwhile, Attorney General Jim Hood of Mississippi said 
that the state's lawmakers should find other means of executions as lethal 
injections are more conducive for lawsuits. The Democrat Attorney General 
suggested electrocution, gas chamber, hanging, and firing death squads when 
lethal injections are not available. The last lethal injections that were 
administered by the Mississippi was back in 2012.

(source: lawyerherald.com)

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

Federal appeals panel vacates injunction delaying inmate's execution


A federal appeals panel has struck down a lower court's temporary injunction 
against Mississippi's efforts to execute a man found guilty of murdering a 
Metairie-raised woman in 1976.

The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals panel ruled Wednesday that a U.S. district 
judge in Mississippi should not have granted the plaintiffs an injunction in a 
case contesting whether 1 of the drugs used in the state's lethal injection 
process conforms to state law.

1 of those plaintiffs is Richard Gerald Jordan, who was convicted 40 years ago 
of kidnapping Edwina Marter from her Gulfport home. Jordan took Marter, who was 
raised in Metairie, to extract a ransom from her husband, but Jordan shot her 
in the back of the head when she tried to escape in DeSoto National Forest.

At 69, Jordan is the longest-serving inmate on Mississippi's death row. He has 
been given the death penalty 4 times, having successfully challenged the first 
3 convictions in court.

In his latest challenge, backed by the MacArthur Justice Center in New Orleans, 
Jordan and 2 other inmates say the 1st drug in a 3-drug cocktail that 
Mississippi now uses for lethal injections is not an "ultra short-acting" 
barbiturate, as required by state law.

In August, U.S. District Judge Henry Wingate, of Jackson, Mississippi, granted 
an injunction blocking the execution based on 1 of 3 objections raised by the 
plaintiffs.

The 5th Circuit ruling said Mississippi's sovereign immunity prevents a federal 
court from issuing an injunction against state officials solely to require them 
to adhere to state law. There must be a federal provision or constitutional 
issue at stake.

Jordan and his fellow plaintiffs say their constitutional right to due process 
is being violated through the use of the illegal drug. The 3-judge appeals 
panel, however, found that the plaintiffs failed to meet the legal standard to 
warrant the injunction, handing the matter back to Wingate.

"Plaintiffs have not demonstrated a substantial likelihood of success on the 
merits of their claims because they have not established a liberty interest in 
the enforcement of (the law) and because they have not shown that Mississippi's 
alleged deviation (from it) would 'shock the conscience,'" wrote 5th Circuit 
Judge Jennifer Walker Elrod.

Jim Craig, co-director of the MacArthur Justice Center, said in a statement 
after the ruling was issued that it has "long been established" that the 1st 
drugs used by Mississippi in lethal injections - either midazolam or a 
compounded pentobarbital - have been known to not properly anesthetize a 
condemned prisoner, causing him to "suffer from the tortuous effects of the 2nd 
and 3rd drugs."

Craig wrote that the MacArthur Center is hoping Wingate will grant another 
injunction based on the center's other 2 arguments against the use of the 
drugs, which he said have been at the center of several botched executions that 
amounted to "chemical torture."

"We are studying the ruling to determine whether to seek review by the full 5th 
Circuit and/or the Supreme Court," he wrote.

(source: The Advocate)






LOUISIANA:

Remorseful Former Prosecutor Apologizes for Sending Innocent Man to Death Row


In 1984, Glenn Ford was tried and convicted for murdering Isadore Rozeman. He 
was 34-years-old at the time.

Even though there wasn't enough evidence to prove Ford had committed a crime, 
former Louisiana prosecutor Marty Stroud did everything in his power to make 
sure he received the death penalty.

After serving 30 years on death row for 2st-degree murder, evidence finally 
surfaced that proved he was, in fact, innocent. Ford became on of the longest 
serving death row prisoners in America's history. On March 11, 2014, he was 
released from Angola Prison.

Sadly, he passed away only a few months later from lung cancer.

Stroud later came forward to admit that he failed to look into information that 
could have cleared Ford, as well as choosing an all-white jury and completely 
taking advantage of a defense team that had never handled a criminal case.

"I was arrogant, judgmental, narcissistic and very full of myself," Stroud 
wrote in his letter to the Shreveport Times. "I was not as interested in 
justice as I was in winning."

Before Ford died, Stroud met up with him to apologize in person, but the 
exonerated man wasn't interested in forgiveness.

"I'm sorry I can't forgive you," Ford said. How can you blame him? He spent 30 
years on death row for a crime he didn't even commit.

To this day, there is a legal battle against the state for his wrongful 
conviction.

(source: First to Know)