[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, N.C., GA., FLA., OKLA.

[Rick Halperin]

Jan. 19




TEXAS----impending execution

Supreme Court refuses to review Texas death penalty case


The U.S. Supreme Court has refused to review the case of a 42-year-old man set 
to die next month for the slaying of a suburban Dallas liquor store clerk.

The high court, without comment Tuesday, rejected an appeal from Gustavo 
Garcia, who's scheduled for lethal injection Feb. 16.

Garcia was 19 in December 1990 when 43-year-old Craig Turski was fatally shot 
during a holdup in Plano. Authorities tied him to a second slaying a month 
later, also in Plano.

In earlier unsuccessful appeals, Garcia's attorneys contended his 2 written 
confessions improperly were admitted into evidence at his trial, that his trial 
legal help was deficient and that 2 prospective jurors improperly were excused.

Garcia was 1 of 7 inmates involved in at attempted escape from death row in 
1998.

(source: valleycentral.com)






NORTH CAROLINA:

Reputed gang members could get capital punishment trial


It's still yet to be decided if Jamell Cureton, along with reputed gang member 
Malcolm Hartley, will face the death penalty for crimes they allegedly 
committed as members of the United Blood Nation.

In 2015, 6 other reputed gang members pleaded guilty for their role in a 
racketeering and conspiracy case involving the 2014 shooting deaths of Doug and 
Debbie London.

Hartley is accused of shooting the Londons at Cureton's request. Prosecutors 
said the Londons were gunned down in their home to keep them from testifying 
against 3 United Blood Nation members in an earlier robbery case.

Tuesday morning, prosecutors told a judge they are still waiting on a 
recommendation from the Department of Justice to determine whether or not they 
will pursue the death penalty.

As part of discovery, federal prosecutors said they plan on using the 
interviews they conducted with the criminals who already pleaded guilty in 
connection to this case.

Prosecutors said they hope formal proceedings will continue in February.

(source: WBTV news)






GEORGIA----impending execution

Brandon Astor Jones - time is running out


An execution date of 2 February has been set. Please write to the Governor of 
Georgia to appeal for clemency.

Regular readers of New Internationalist magazine, and of our website, will be 
familiar with the name of Brandon Astor Jones. He has been an occasional 
contributor for many years. Nothing surprising in that: many of our 
contributors are longstanding, and many of them have become friends. What is 
unique about Brandon, however, is that for the many decades we have known him, 
he has written for us from a prison in the US state of Georgia.

Convicted of killing a store clerk in 1972, Brandon, now nearly 73 years old, 
was sentenced to death in 1979; of his 36 years in prison, nearly 20 of them 
have been spent on death row. He is the state's oldest death row inmate and, 
following the failure of his latest appeal, is due to be executed at 7pm on 
Tuesday 2 February.

Georgia executed 5 people in 2015, including 1 woman.

In 2008, at a time when Brandon believed his execution was near, he wrote an 
article for us which contained what he called 'my last will and testament'. You 
can read it in full here: newint.org/features/2008/01/01/death-penalty. In it, 
he writes:

I am under sentence of death here in the American Southland. Over a period of 
many years I have stretched and tested the limits of the so-called 'appeals 
process'. I am very likely to be killed in the near, as opposed to the distant, 
future. When New Internationalist gave me leave to write whatever I chose about 
the death penalty, I decided to take an unusual approach. I respectfully 
request that the reader absorb this more as my last will and testament than a 
mere essay.

Brandon's association with New Internationalist predates my own by a long way. 
I have worked here for 18 years, yet this is just 1/2 the amount of time that 
Brandon has spent in prison. Over the past few years, while working on our 
blogs, I have had the pleasure of communicating with Brandon, and getting to 
know him through the pieces he has written for us. Through the blogs, he has 
exposed the reality of life in a high-security prison: the racism, the power 
struggles, the terrible conditions, the fear of enemies and the unwavering 
support of friends.

One of those friends contacted me earlier this week with the news of the 
execution date. She has sent an email to Nathan Deal, Governor of Georgia, to 
appeal for clemency. Please follow her example. If you are writing from within 
the US, you should use this form: 
gov.georgia.gov/webform/contact-governor-domestic-form If you are writing from 
outside the US, please use this form: 
gov.georgia.gov/webform/contact-governor-international-form

A full list of Brandon's more recent contributions to New Internationalist can 
be found here: newint.org/contributors/brandon-astor-jones

(source: newint.org)

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

Too Long on Death Row to Die


In 1979, Jimmy Carter was President. Pink Floyd released their bestselling 
album "The Wall." Denim overalls were in, Mork and Mindy was on TV, and news 
about the Iranian hostage crisis dominated every headline.

Some of you reading this weren't even alive in 1979.

But in 1979, another, perhaps less well-known event, took place. Roger Tackett, 
a teacher, moonlighting as a convenience store attendant in a suburb of 
Atlanta, Georgia, was shot and killed. Brandon Astor Jones and his co-defendant 
Van Roosevelt Solomon were sentenced to death for the crime. Solomon was 
executed in 1985, but Jones has remained on death row for all this time.

That's 38 years of waiting to be executed.

The State of Georgia just set a February 2, 2016 execution date for Jones.

A 2016 execution date for a murder that happened in 1979.

I mean, what's the point? None of the reasons we punish hold true here.

We punish people to deter others from committing the same crime. But who is 
likely to be deterred by a 38-year delay between sentence and execution? (And 
let's just put it out there, the death penalty is not a deterrent anyway).

We punish people to incapacitate them so they can not harm anyone else. At 72 
years old, statistics would suggest that Jones is unlikely to harm anyone else 
anyway.

We punish people for retribution. And Jones' crime of murder is certainly 
serious and worthy of punishment. But it does seem a bit bizarre to put to 
death a 72 year old now for a crime he committed all those many years ago. The 
person Jones was then, and the person he is today, are entirely disconnected. 
Too much -- way too much -- time has passed.

The idea of "too much time" on death row is not entirely new.

International courts have found too-long stays on death row to be problematic. 
In 1993, a British court found that it was "inhumane and degrading" to hang 
anyone who spent more than 5 years on death row. The court said it felt too 
much like double punishment, and that the death sentences should be commuted to 
life.

Closer to home, the United States Supreme Court has never ruled on the issue of 
whether keeping someone on death row for too long is cruel and unusual 
punishment. In 2009, Justice Stevens and Justice Breyer voted to grant review 
in a case involving a 32-year stay on death row. Since not enough Supreme Court 
justices agreed to take on that issue, it is still unresolved by our highest 
court. But the issue of "too long" death sentences remains ripe for our highest 
court to consider.

Jones is now 72, and not in great health. He is a writer and a blogger who 
documents his experiences on death row. In other words, Jones may still have 
something to teach us; something perhaps that he can contribute to society were 
he permitted to serve out the rest of his life behind bars.

I've written before that I am opposed to capital punishment in all cases. But 
in this case involving an ailing senior, Jones' pending execution really seems 
like overkill.

(source: Jessica S. Henry, Associate Professor of Justice Studies----Huffington 
Post)






FLORIDA----impending execution

Death row inmate Mark James Asay seeks stay of execution


But in this case, an attorney for Mark James Asay is citing lack of previous 
adequate representation for his new client along with questions over the recent 
U.S. Supreme Court ruling that strikes down the state's death penalty system.

Asay, who was convicted of murdering 2 men in downtown Jacksonville 29 years 
ago, is scheduled to be executed on St. Patrick's Day.

In a petition filed Tuesday with the Florida Supreme Court, attorney Martin J. 
McClain said he only began representing Asay on Jan. 13 after his death warrant 
had been signed by Gov. Rick Scott, and he found the files in his case "have 
either been destroyed or are unavailable."

Asay's petition comes after condemned killer Cary Michael Lambrix also sought a 
stay of his execution, which is scheduled for Feb. 11. Lambrix' plea hinges on 
the recent Supreme Court ruling, Hurst vs. Florida, which deemed the state's 
sentencing procedure unconstitutional because juries play an advisory role in 
recommending life or death. State law requires judges to make the final 
decision, after giving "great weight" to jurors' recommendations.

The Florida Supreme Court has denied an immediate stay for Lambrix and 
scheduled oral arguments for Feb. 2 on the question of whether the Hurst 
decision applies retroactively to his case. State lawyers have argued that if 
the case were applied retroactively, it would have a "severe and unsettling 
impact" on Florida's justice system.

(source: Tampa Bay Times)

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

Use pause to reconsider capital punishment


Given the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling against capital punishment in Florida, 
this is a good time to reflect on the law of unintended consequences and the 
death penalty.

It's worth noting that no definitive study has ever suggested, let alone 
proven, that the death penalty stops more people from murdering. In fact, the 
violence capital punishment begets violence in society.

It's worth noting that each execution costs roughly $3.2 million. The cost of 
life imprisonment without parole is $600,000. Capital punishment certainly 
doesn't save the taxpayers money.

It's worth noting that executions are not the best way to bring "closure" to 
the families of murder victims. My heart goes out to these families. There is 
nothing worse than having a loved one murdered. The pain never goes away. It's 
been said that grief is like climbing a spiral staircase. We may put some 
distance from the pain, but at any moment we look over the railing and still 
see the source of our grief.

At the same time the necessity of adequate legal appeals and the congestion of 
our judicial system mean that it takes an average of 15 years between 
conviction and execution. There are 390 inmates on Florida's death row. If we 
executed 1 person a month, which in itself is unlikely, it would take 32 years 
to empty death row, assuming no one else was placed on death row during the 
ensuing years.

And finally, it is worth noting that as we continue to execute people in 
Florida, we inevitably kill innocent people. Florida has the highest rate of 
exoneration of any state in the country, 26 since 1973, over twice that of 
Texas, and then exponentially more than states following. Even accounting for 
these exonerations, it is estimated that 4 % to 5 % of those executed are 
innocent.

I have visited Florida's maximum security prisons for 30 years, and life 
imprisonment without possibility of parole is punishment enough for any soul.

Gov. Rick Scott has executed 23 people, the highest number of any governor 
since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976. I hope we Floridians use the 
pause in executions mandated by the U.S. Supreme Court to reconsider its 
financial, legal, ethical and moral challenge to our state and to our lives.

The day will surely come when Florida will join the rest of America and most of 
the civilized world and ban capital punishment. Let us make it sooner rather 
than later.

(source: Commentary; The Rev. Larry Reimer is pastor emeritus of the United 
Church of Gainesville----The Gainesville Sun)






OKLAHOMA:

Pair with McAlester ties face possible death sentence


2 men arrested in McAlester in the slaying of an elderly Oklahoma rancher face 
a possible death sentence if convicted of the crime.

Prosecutors have filed court paperwork announcing they are seeking the death 
penalty for 2 men accused in the shooting death of a Cherokee County rancher 
during a home invasion, according to the Associated Press.

The Tulsa World reports District Attorney Brian Kuester filed a court document 
requesting the death penalty on Thursday.

25-year-old Paul Newberry and 23-year-old Cheyenne Watts are charged with 
1st-degree murder in the July death of 88-year-old Charley Kirk. Kirk's body 
was found in his home in Keys.

Investigators have said that they believe he was killed when he interrupted a 
burglary at his home.

Newberry and Watts were arrested in McAlester in August. They were apprehended 
with 2 Pittsburg County women outside the Choctaw Casino in McAlester just days 
after Kirk's body was found.

Authorities at the time credited an alert Choctaw Nation Tribal Police Officer, 
Jermaine Riddle, for the arrests. Riddle was on routine patrol in the parking 
lot of the Choctaw Casino in McAlester and noticed the 4 in a vehicle with the 
engine turned off in 100-degree heat. He approached the vehicle, got a false 
name from the driver and eventually took all 4 into custody with the help of 
county deputies and others.

Both men also face additional charges of robbery with a weapon, 1st-degree 
attempted arson, larceny of an automobile and 3rd-degree arson.

Newberry also made headlines a month ago when authorities say he escaped from 
the county detention center in Muskogee. Federal authorities later nabbed him 
in Texas in a stolen semi taken from Muskogee County.

Attorneys listed for Newberry and Watts did not immediately return calls from 
The Associated Pres.

(source: Associated Press)