[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, FLA., CALIF.

[Rick Halperin]

Jan. 20



TEXAS----execution

Texas puts inmate to death for a killing 15 years ago in state's 1st execution 
of 2016


A Texas man put to death Wednesday for a killing 15 years ago became the 
state's 1st prisoner executed in 2016.

Richard Masterson, 43, was pronounced dead at 6:53 p.m. after a lethal 
injection in the nation's busiest death penalty state. Texas carried out 13 
lethal injections in 2015, accounting for nearly half of the 28 executions 
nationwide.

Masterson had claimed the January 2001 strangulation of Darin Shane Honeycutt 
was accidental and had several appeals before the courts, including at four 
with the U.S. Supreme Court. His last-day efforts to stop his execution were 
rejected.

He had testified at his trial that the death of the 35-year-old Honeycutt in 
Houston happened accidentally during a chokehold that was part of a sex act. 
The 2 had met at a bar and then went to Honeycutt's apartment.

Honeycutt was an entertainer who performed dressed as a woman. Honeycutt's 
stage name was Brandi Houston.

Court records showed Masterson confessed to police, told others about the 
killing and acknowledged Honeycutt was slain on purpose in a letter to the 
Texas attorney general in 2012.

"I meant to kill him," Masterson wrote to then-Attorney General Greg Abbott, 
who is now the state's governor. "It was no accident."

Evidence showed Masterson stole Honeycutt's car, dumped it in Georgia, and was 
arrested at a Florida mobile home park more than a week later with another 
stolen car. That car belonged to a Tampa, Florida, man who testified he was 
robbed by Masterson but survived a similar sex episode where he was choked.

Masterson's attorneys argued Honeycutt's death was accidental or the result of 
a heart attack, that a Harris County medical examiner whose credentials have 
been questioned was wrong to tell jurors it was a strangulation, that 
Masterson's earlier lawyers were deficient and that his prolonged drug use and 
then withdrawal while in jail contributed to his "suicide by confession" when 
he spoke to police and in the letter to Abbott.

Lawyers also contended trial jurors were given an incomplete instruction before 
their deliberations and that the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals denied 
Masterson his rights to due process and access to the courts by refusing their 
challenge to a new state law that keeps secret the identity of the provider of 
pentobarbital that Texas prison officials use for lethal injections.

State lawyers argued that Masterson's attorneys offered no scientific evidence 
about Honeycutt's death that hadn't been previously raised and rejected, 
including by jurors at Masterson's 2002 trial. Federal courts had no 
jurisdiction in the execution drug secrecy because it was a state matter, they 
contended.

Masterson had a long drug history and criminal record beginning at age 15. 
Court documents showed he ignored advice from lawyers at his trial for the 
killing and insisted on telling jurors he met Honeycutt at a bar and they went 
to Honeycutt's Houston apartment where Masterson said the chokehold was part of 
an autoerotic sex act.

Honeycutt's body was found Jan. 27, 2001, after friends became worried when he 
failed to show up for work.

Masterson also told jurors he was a future danger - an element they had to 
agree with in order to decide a death sentence was appropriate.

Masterson's case recently drew the attention of Pope Francis, who has 
reinforced the Catholic Church's opposition to capital punishment.

At least 8 other Texas death row inmates have executions scheduled for the 
coming months, including 1 set for next week.

Masterson becomes the 1st condemned inmate to be put to death this year in 
Texas and the 532nd overall since the state resumed capital punishment on 
December 7, 1982. He becomes the 14th condemned inmate to be put to death in 
Texas since Greg Abbott became governor of the stat in Jan. 2015.

Masterson becomes the 2nd condemned inmate to be put to death this year in the 
USA and the 1424th overall since the nation resumed executions on Jasnaury 17, 
1977.

(sources: Associated Press & Rick Halperin)

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

Executions under Greg Abbott, Jan. 21, 2015-present----14

Executions in Texas: Dec. 7, 1982----present-----532

Abbott#--------scheduled execution date-----name------------Tx. #

15---------January 27---------------James Freeman---------533

16---------February 16--------------Gustavo Garcia--------534

17---------March 9------------------Coy Wesbrook----------535

18---------March 22-----------------Adam Ward-------------536

19---------March 30-----------------John Battaglia--------537

20---------April 6------------------Pablo Vasquez---------538

21---------April 27-----------------Robert Pruett---------539

22---------June 2-------------------Charles Flores--------540

(sources: TDCJ & Rick Halperin)






FLORIDA:

Lavar Monte Thompson Convicted, But A Potential Death Penalty Sentencing Is On 
Hold


A Starke man was convicted Wednesday for the 2012 murder of William Couch.

The prosecution's decision on whether to pursue the death penalty or not is on 
hold, the state attorney's office said.

Lavar Monte Thompson, 35, was charged with 1st-degree murder in the killing of 
Couch, as well as home invasion robbery, burglary while armed with a firearm 
and battery, 2 counts of kidnapping and arson.

With the recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling that Florida's death penalty 
sentencing system is unconstitutional, the prosecution will wait to decide 
whether to pursue the death penalty or not.

Multiple agencies were involved in this case including the Union County 
Sheriff's Office, the Bradford County Sheriff's Office, The Florida Department 
of Law Enforcement and the State Fire Marshal's Office.

The jury deliberated over the conviction for more than an hour. Sentencing for 
Thompson will be decided at a later date, until a decision over how to handle 
the death penalty has been made.

2 co-defendants in the case, Michael Pierce and Amanda Jeffrey, were previously 
sentenced in the case. Pierce previously served time in a state prison on an 
aggravated assault conviction, according to the Florida Department of 
Corrections.

Thompson also served time in state prison for grand theft auto and cocaine 
charges.

(source: WUFT news)






CALIFORNIA:

California death penalty: New execution method under scrutiny


As California moves forward Friday with a crucial public hearing to air its new 
lethal injection procedures, death penalty foes are taking aim at the details 
in a plan that could lead to the resumption of executions after a 10-year 
hiatus.

Calling the reforms "human experimentation," the American Civil Liberties Union 
and other death penalty critics say California's Department of Corrections and 
Rehabilitation has proposed revised lethal injection methods that will lead to 
the type of botched executions that have plagued other states. "The proposed 
regulation is replete with legal, ethical, medical and logistical problems," 
said Megan McCracken, a lethal injection expert with UC Berkeley law school's 
death penalty clinic.

State prison officials in November proposed an elaborate new execution 
procedure in an attempt to resolve a decade of legal battles over the state's 
execution method, with the centerpiece being a switch from a three-drug lethal 
cocktail to a single drug to put condemned killers to death.

Death penalty supporters, however, say the criticism is just an effort to 
thwart executions.

"Having failed for decades to convince the people of their view that the death 
penalty is wrong, their strategy is to make it impractical and then argue for 
repeal on the grounds of practicality," said Kent Scheidegger, legal director 
of the pro-death penalty Criminal Justice Legal Foundation.

Under administrative rules the state must follow to enact the new procedures, 
prison leaders have received thousands of comments on the proposal and will 
hold a public hearing Friday in Sacramento. The lethal injection reforms, if 
approved, would likely take effect in November -- when voters also will be 
asked to decide a ballot measure that seeks to abolish the death penalty

California is following the lead of many other states with lethal injection by 
choosing to opt for a single sedative to execute death row inmates. The new 
procedure includes four drug options: amobarbital, pentobarbital, secobarbital 
and thiopental.

But death penalty opponents readying for Friday's hearing say 2 of those drugs, 
amobarbital and secobarbital, have never been used in executions, accusing the 
state of taking the risk of experimenting on the state's 750 death row inmates.

In addition, critics of the state's plan note that California's procedures do 
not include any specifics on how prison officials will obtain these drugs for 
lethal injections -- a problem in other death penalty states that have had 
trouble securing a supply since pharmaceutical companies several years ago 
balked at providing them for executions.

"It's a huge question mark," said Ana Zamora, the ACLU's criminal justice 
policy director.

Death penalty supporters say the groups are putting up invalid roadblocks to 
executions. For example, Scheidegger said it is irrelevant that some of the 
drugs have not been used before because there is sufficient medical evidence 
they are lethal and "produce a less painful death than traditional methods of 
execution."

He added that state methods of securing a drug supply do not belong in the 
regulations.

State prison officials dispute that the regulations do not include mention of 
drug supply. In 1 passage, prison officials note that the drugs can be produced 
in the prison system's pharmacies, by other state-run pharmacies or obtained 
from private sources.

Legal experts say California will have to provide details in its proposal on 
how it will secure execution drugs, because the overall plan must still survive 
court review. A San Francisco federal judge at some point is expected to 
consider the legality of the state's new procedures.

"Traditionally, of course, requiring drug sources has not been part of a lethal 
injection protocol," said Deborah Denno, a lethal injection expert at Fordham 
University law school. "But the past few years have shown us that that 
drug-acquisition information is critically important."

(source: Mercury News)