[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, DEL., VA., FLA., ALA., MISS., MO., CALIF., USA

[Rick Halperin]

Jan. 21




TEXAS----new execution date

Perry Williams has been given an execution date for July 14; it should be 
considered serious.

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

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

23---------July 14------------------Perry Williams--------541

(sources: TDCJ & Rick Halperin)






DELAWARE:

Death penalty repeal bill headed to House vote


A death penalty repeal bill that had been languishing in a House committee is 
headed to a vote by the full House next week after the committee chairman 
agreed to release it.

Judiciary Committee members voted 6-to-5 last May not to send the bill to the 
full House after it cleared the Senate on an 11-to-9 vote.

But committee chairman Rep. John Mitchell, D-Elsmere, who opposes repeal, said 
Thursday that he had signed it out of committee with an "unfavorable" 
endorsement, allowing the bill to move forward.

Rep. Sean Lynn, a Dover Democrat and chief House sponsor of the legislation, 
said he believes it has enough support to pass the House.

Democratic Gov. Jack Markell has said he would sign the measure if it reaches 
his desk.

(source: Associated Press)






VIRGINIA:

Va. death penalty murder trial of Joaquin Rams is postponed


The capital murder trial of Joaquin S. Rams, accused of drowning his 
15-month-old son in 2012 to collect more than $540,000 in insurance proceeds, 
has been postponed from its Feb. 1 start date in Prince William County Circuit 
Court.

Rams, 43, has been in the Prince William jail without bond for 3 years in 
connection with the October 2012 death of his son Prince McLeod Rams. But on 
Wednesday, his lawyers asked for a continuance, and Prince William Circuit 
Court Judge Craig D. Johnston granted it. No new trial date was set, pending a 
hearing next week.

Defense attorney Daniel Morissette said the court-appointed defense team was 
concerned about the availability of some out-of-state witnesses and whether 
they would be present in Manassas when the defense presents its case. Rams has 
maintained he is innocent in his son's death.

(source: Washington Post)






FLORIDA----female to face death penalty

Prosecutors seek death for woman charged with killing son


Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against a Florida woman accused of 
killing her 3-year-old son and stuffing him into a suitcase.

State Attorney spokesman David Angier says Bay County prosecutors filed a 
notice to seek the death penalty Thursday against 27-year-old Egypt Moneeck 
Robinson. A grand jury indicted her Wednesday on a 1st-degree murder charge.

The sheriff's office reports that Robinson's boyfriend initially went to the 
1st department last month to report the child's death. Firefighters contacted 
deputies, who went to Robinson's home near Panama City. Deputies found the 
suitcase containing the child's body floating in water behind the home.

Sheriff Frank McKeithen has said investigators are looking at "ritualistic 
sacrifice" as a possible motive.

(source: Associated Press)






ALABAMA----execution

Christopher Brooks executed for 1992 rape and murder


Christopher Brooks, convicted of the 1992 rape, murder and robbery of Jo Deann 
Campbell, was put to death Thursday night in the first execution carried out in 
Alabama in almost 2 1/2 years.

2 media witnesses said Brooks was declared dead at 6:38 p.m. after being 
administered a 3-drug injection.

Investigators found Campbell on Dec. 31, 1992, partially clothed and beaten 
with a weight in her apartment in Homewood. Police found a bloody fingerprint 
belonging to Brooks at the scene, and later found Brooks with Campbell's car 
keys and credit card. A jury convicted Brooks, 43, in 1993 of the crime, a 
conviction upheld in the state's appellate courts. Brooks met Campbell while 
working as a camp counselor.

Alabama last executed an inmate on July 25, 2013. Executions came to a halt due 
to a shortage of drugs used in the execution, particularly the sedatives meant 
to render the condemned inmate unconscious before the injection of the fatal 
chemicals. Legal challenges to lethal injection also slowed the execution 
process.

Alabama switched the sedative from sodium thiopental to pentobarbital after 
Hospira, the maker of sodium thiopental, discontinued its manufacture in the 
United States in 2011. The state acknowledged in early 2014 it had run out of 
pentobarbital. But in a filing with the Alabama Supreme Court in September, the 
Alabama Attorney General's office said it had secured midazolam hydrochloride 
as a sedative.

Florida has used midazolam in its executions since 2013, without reported 
incident. But the drug was present in executions in Ohio, Oklahoma and Arizona 
in 2014, where inmates took a lengthy time to die. In 2 cases, reporters said 
inmates appeared to be gasping or choking through the process.

The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the use of midazolam in executions in a 5-4 
decision. Writing for the majority, Justice Samuel Alito said three Oklahoma 
inmates challenging its use had failed to prove it violated the U.S. 
Constitution's prohibitions against cruel and unusual punishment. The court 
also ruled that the condemned had to suggest a more humane method of execution 
available to officials.

After administration of the sedative, the state protocol calls for the 
injection of rocuronium bromide, which paralyzes the muscles. The inmate would 
next receive potassium chloride, to stop the heart. The drugs are administered 
from a room outside the execution chamber. Under state law, Holman warden 
Carter Davenport administers the lethal injection.,P. Brooks was moved to a 
holding cell on Tuesday in advance of the execution. He was given a breakfast 
at 6:10 a.m., but did not eat it. Brooks saw friends and attorneys until 4:15 
p.m. Thursday, according to Corrections officials.

There are 186 inmates on Alabama's death row. 5 have challenged the use of 
midazolam, saying it would not render them unconscious in time to avoid the 
pain from the other 2 drugs, which would be a violation of the Eighth 
Amendment's protections against "cruel and unusual punishment." The inmates 
also questioned whether Corrections officials consistently administer a 
consciousness test before administering the lethal drugs. Brooks filed a motion 
to join the case in November, and later to stay his execution.

"Midazolam will not anesthetize Brooks, and regardless of the dose, will not 
eliminate the risk that a condemned inmate will experience pain from the 
paralytic or potassium chloride," his brief said.

A district court allowed Brooks to join the lawsuit, known as the "Midazolam 
Litigation," but refused to grant a stay. A federal appeals court Tuesday 
refused to intervene, upholding the district judge's ruling that Brooks had not 
offered an alternative means of execution available to the Alabama Department 
of Corrections. The court also upheld the district court???s ruling that Brooks 
had run out of time to intervene in the case.

The U.S. Supreme Court denied Brooks' requests for a stay of the execution 
Thursday evening. The majority did not explain its reasons. Justice Stephen 
Breyer wrote a brief dissent, saying the methods by which Brooks was sentenced 
resembled Florida's capital sentences, which the high court voted to strike 
down earlier this month in a case titled Hurst v. Florida.

"The unfairness inherent in treating this case differently from others which 
used similarly unconstitutional procedures only underscores the need to 
reconsider the validity of capital punishment under the Eighth Amendment," 
Breyer wrote.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor, joined by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg, wrote a 
separate concurrence in the denial. Sotomayor wrote that "procedural obstacles" 
prevented the court from granting the stay, but added that the majority's 
decision to deny the ruling was based on two cases that Hurst overturned.

A federal court last year scheduled an evidentiary hearing on the remaining 
inmates' challenge to the state's death penalty procedures for April.

The long pause between executions in Alabama was unusual, but not 
unprecedented. The state resumed executions in 1983, but did not schedule any 
for almost 3 years after, following the gruesome death of John Evans in the 
electric chair on April 22, 1983. There was a 2 1/2 year gap in executions in 
the state between 1992 and 1995.

Brooks' execution is the 7th to take place under Gov. Robert Bentley's 
administration.

Brooks becomes the 1st condemned inmate to be put to death this year in Alabam 
and the 57th overall since the state resumed capital punishment in 1983.

Brooks becomes the 3rd condemned inmate to be put to death this year in the USA 
and the 1425th overall since the nation resumed executions on January 17, 1977. 
There is 1 more execution later this month, set for Jan. 27 in Texas.

(sources: Monntgommery Advertiser & Rick Halperin)

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

Does AL execution violate prisoner's 8th amendment right?


A man arrested in Columbus, GA for the 1992 rape and murder of 23-year-old Jo 
Deann Campbell is set to be executed in Alabama on Thursday at 6 p.m.

Christopher Eugene Brooks will be the first person executed in the state since 
July 2013, but it is the method in which he will be executed that is causing 
the most controversy.

A new lethal drug combination will be used in Brooks' execution similar to the 
one used in Oklahoma for Clayton Lockett's 2014 execution that took 43 minutes. 
Many call into question if the new combination violates inmate's 8th Amendment 
right.

"Especially when you had on record that there was a botch execution and then 
you have a drug that is untested that puts the question out there," says Dr. 
Fredrick Gordon, chair of CSU's Political Science Department.

Gordon says he is neither for or against the death penalty but teaches his 
students how to analyze both sides of the issue.

"A lot of death row inmates will try to look at every procedure to try to stay, 
or avoid or delay the death penalty. Yet at the same time we have to recognize 
there is a victim in the situation," says Gordon.

Brooks was not granted clemency and on Tuesday his appeal to the Supreme Court 
was also denied.

"The decision had already been made. It had been made by him when he committed 
the crime and it had been made by the courts with all of the reviews," said 
Governor Robert Bentley.

Campbell was brutally beaten with a dumbbell and raped before she was murdered 
in 1992. Her sister Corrine says although she understands the court system, she 
has waited more than 2 decades for justice.

"The justice system is set up the way that it is and he has a right to do so 
you know again my focus is definitely on my sister at this point and not him," 
Corrine said.

For some the death penalty is retribution, for others it is a violation of 
their religious beliefs, but Gordon says regardless of where you stand you 
can't ignore the statistics.

"Northern states have the death penalty banned, so it's not an option and 
people commit some very heinous crimes similar to this Alabama case, they don't 
get the death penalty they get life in prison," says Gordon.

According to Deathpenaltyinfo.org when it comes to death row inmates, Alabama 
is the fourth highest state in the U.S. with 195 people on death row and 
Georgia is ninth with 95 people on death row.

Out of more than 2,000 executions since 1976, over 1,100 of them happened in 
Southern states.

(source: WTVM news)






MISSISSIPPI:

New appeal in death penalty case amid claim about bailiff


A Mississippi death row inmate convicted of killing his roommate can file more 
appeals because white jurors might have been improperly influenced by trial 
court bailiffs expressing opinions to them about black jurors not favoring the 
death penalty, the state Supreme Court ruled in a split decision Thursday.

The majority of the court said statements by bailiffs to jurors might have 
violated Bobby Batiste's constitutional right to an impartial jury.

Batiste, a former Mississippi State University student from Preston, was 
convicted and sentenced to death in 2009 in Oktibbeha County in the 2008 
slaying of Andreas Galanis of Biloxi.

Prosecutors said Galanis died from a blow to the head after he and Batiste 
fought at their off-campus apartment in Starkville when Galanis discovered 
money missing from his checking account. Batiste told police that Galanis 
attacked him first, according to court records.

The Mississippi Supreme Court in 2013 upheld Batiste's conviction and sentence, 
and the U.S. Supreme Court in 2014 said it would not hear Batiste's appeal for 
a new trial.

The state Supreme Court said Thursday that after those appeals were rejected, 
juror Denise Cranford filed a sworn statement saying bailiffs were friendly and 
"explained the law" to jurors during the trial. Cranford wrote that she and 
some other jurors initially were concerned about the jury being all-white, but 
a bailiff said black and white people view the death penalty differently.

"The bailiff said that black people will not consider the death penalty. After 
that explanation I was no longer concerned," Cranford said in her statement, 
according to Supreme Court records.

Batiste, now 36, is black.

During Batiste's earlier appeals, his attorneys had no reason to know jurors 
might have been influenced by bailiffs, Justice James W. Kitchens wrote in the 
order Thursday.

"While such an explanation may have alleviated the concerns of jurors regarding 
the absence of African Americans on Batiste's jury, we cannot say that such 
remarks to jurors, if made, did not impact Batiste's fundamental constitutional 
right to a fair trial by an impartial jury," Kitchens wrote. "This case seems 
especially egregious in light of the heightened standard which we are bound to 
apply in cases which involve the death penalty."

Justice Randy Pierce wrote in a dissent: "There is no indication that the 
bailiff expressed personal beliefs relating to Batiste's conviction or 
sentence, or that the comments influenced the jury's decision-making process."

Batiste's attorneys have 60 days to ask the Oktibbeha County circuit court to 
file a petition for post-conviction relief in Oktibbeha County Circuit Court. 
In such a petition, an inmate argues he has found new evidence, or a possible 
constitutional issue, that could persuade a court to order a new trial.

(source: sunherald.com)



MISSOURI:

Judge rules mistrial in murder case; too few jurors neutral on death penalty


A judge declared a mistrial last week in a quadruple-murder case because not 
enough jurors could be found with neutral views of the death penalty.

The court was to hear the case of a Doniphan, Missouri, man charged in 
connection in the 2010 deaths of two elderly couples whose bodies were found in 
their burned homes.

Presiding Circuit Judge Michael Pritchett issued his ruling after it was 
determined not enough jurors remained after questioning by the state and 
defense attorneys to select a jury of 12 and alternates for the trial of Keith 
A. Boyles.

Boyles, 23, was to stand trial on 4 counts of 1st-degree murder and 4 counts of 
armed criminal action. The state was seeking the death penalty.

"We could not get enough jurors," said a court official. "We had to death 
qualify them, meaning a juror had to be able to consider each punishment -- 
death vs. life -- equally.

"Too many said they could only consider 1 punishment. ... We started with 140. 
We needed to have 38 say they could consider both punishments so that each side 
could then make their strikes."

Thursday was when "we couldn't get to 38," which led to the mistrial, the court 
official said.

That was the day the jury-selection process began in Ste. Genevieve County. If 
jurors had been chosen, they would have been brought to Butler County for 
Boyles' trial.

Because the state sought the death penalty, the jurors would have been 
sequestered for the duration of the trial.

Boyles now will appear Feb. 23 before Pritchett to have his case reset for 
trial.

Boyles is accused of killing Gladys Irene Piatt, 80, and Loyd Eugene Piatt, 77, 
as well as Edgar Atkinson, 81, and Bonnie Chase, 69.

The Piatts were found dead inside their burned rural Doniphan home June 23, 
2010. Authorities initially thought the couple had died of smoke inhalation.

The bodies of Atkinson and Chase were found in their burning home in Current 
View, Missouri, on July 10, 2010. An autopsy determined Atkinson died of 
gunshot wounds to the head and upper torso. A cause of death for Chase was not 
known.

After the deaths of Atkinson and Chase, the investigation into the Piatts' 
deaths was reopened, and their bodies were exhumed for autopsies. Both 
reportedly had been shot in the chest.

(source: Southeast Missourian)






CALIFORNIA:

Supreme Court Upholds Death Penalty For OC White Supremacist


Despite defense claims of prosecutorial misconduct, the California Supreme 
Court today affirmed the conviction and death penalty punishment for Billy Joe 
Johnson, a now legendarily wild Orange County white supremacist and killer.

A 2009 jury convicted Johnson - a member of the Nazi-loving, criminal street 
gang Public Enemy Number One Death Squad (PEN1) - for the 2002, ambush, handgun 
murder of Anaheim's Scott Miller, a fellow hoodlum, who broke underworld rules 
by giving an on-camera interview to a Los Angeles television news station.

Johnson, a product of Costa Mesa and methamphetamine addiction, is known also 
to have killed at least two other individuals - Clyde Nordeen (pick axe) and 
Cory Lamons (claw hammer) - in savage, sneak-attach fashion.

During his sensational trial, a gang of sheriff's deputies escorted a 
heavily-shackled Johnson into the courtroom reminiscent of precautions taken 
for Hannibel Lecter in Silence of the Lambs. A young, Asian female juror had 
the misfortune of being seated closest to the killer, who visibly suggested he 
hadn't been in the company of the opposite sex in eons. Through the prominent 
gap in his mouth where you'd usually see front teeth, a wide-eyed Johnson 
smiled at the woman before darting his tongue in and out of his mouth.

Yes, Johnson is a character whose been clinically declared a "psychopath," 
which is why it wasn't shocking that he literally begged the jury to give him 
death.

Sure, insane ideas routinely swirl inside his skull, but the punishment request 
was soberly practical: This man, who'd spent more than 25 of his then-46 years 
on the planet locked up, argued life in prison without the possibility for 
parole inside Pelican Bay State Prison would be a far more painful existence 
than a trip to San Quentin State Prison's death row, where inmates enjoy more 
privileges.

Johnson's appellate lawyer told the Supreme Court that Ebrahim Baytieh, the 
homicide prosecutor in the case, committed misconduct in his closing argument 
by individually addressing jurors and posing a question about the defendant's 
lifelong crime spree: "Are you indignant yet?"

The court determined that the defense forfeited the argument by failing to 
object to the tactic during the trial.

The judges did, however, split on whether Superior Court Judge William Froeberg 
improperly allowed Lamons' mother to testify during the penalty phase for the 
Miller killing. Justices Mariano-Florentino Cuellar, Goodwin H. Lui and Leondra 
R. Kruger opined that the testimony was "irrelevant" to the last murder and its 
inclusion, as authorized by the court's majority opinion, represents an unwise 
expansion of prosecutorial moves not permitted in other jurisdictions. But the 
minority called the miscue "harmless" to affirm the punishment.

Right about now, Johnson is receiving a message of his triumph. He'll likely 
snort and, with that trademark hillbilly lisp, joyous utter profanity before 
his tongue dances outside of his mouth. The 52-year-old thug gets to remain 
where he wants: With about 60 other Orange County killers ahead of him on the 
state's execution list.

(source: Orange County Weekly)






USA:

Still fighting the death penalty, Sr. Prejean gets Pope's blessing


2decades after her anti-death penalty work was transformed into the 
Oscar-winning movie Dead Man Walking, Sr. Helen Prejean's campaign continues 
with the backing of Pope Francis.

Prejean met with the Pope on Jan. 21 to deliver a thank-you letter from Richard 
Glossip, whose execution in the United States was halted in September after 
intervention from the pontiff.

But her celebratory meeting with the pontiff came just hours after another 
death row inmate, Richard Masterson, was put to death in Texas.

"I said, 'They killed him.' And he (Francis) lowered his eyes and said, 'I 
pray, I pray.' He really feels for people on death row," Prejean said.

Masterson was convicted for killing Darin Honeycutt in 2001, although the 
defense team argued that the victim died of a heart attack during consensual 
sexual relations.

The Pope had been following the case closely, Cardinal Christoph Schonborn said 
on Monday.

Francis voiced his opposition to capital punishment while addressing Congress 
during his U.S. visit in September.

"Recently my brother bishops here in the United States renewed their call for 
the abolition of the death penalty. Not only do I support them, but I also 
offer encouragement to all those who are convinced that a just and necessary 
punishment must never exclude the dimension of hope and the goal of 
rehabilitation," Francis told lawmakers.

Prejean remains hopeful in the case of Glossip, convicted of hiring a man to 
kill a motel owner. His execution was indefinitely postponed after it was 
discovered that the wrong drug had been presented for the lethal injection.

The execution was stayed by Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin, who received a letter 
from the Vatican's top U.S. diplomat, Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, urging her 
to save Glossip's life on behalf of the Pope.

"I sensed his innocence from the beginning. I'm with the 7th person on death 
row; 3 of the 7 have been innocent - that's how broken the thing (system) is."

More than 150 people have been released from death row since 1973, following 
evidence of their innocence, according to the Death Penalty Information Centre. 
Executions are disproportionately high in southern states and people are more 
likely to be sentenced to death if their victim is white.

Campaigning equally for those who are guilty and innocent, Prejean argued that 
those on death row feel deep remorse and should not be executed for one act. 
Discussing a particular case, she said a man asked for forgiveness and admitted 
to being so high on drugs he had no memory of the crime.

The nun's fight against capital punishment began in the 1980s, when she became 
a spiritual adviser to Patrick Sonnier, who was put to death in Louisiana. 
Prejean presented the Pope with a Spanish copy of the book based on her 
experiences, Dead Man Walking, which was turned into a film for which Susan 
Sarandon won an Oscar for her role as Prejean.

Prejean said she felt compelled to act after witnessing Sonnier's execution and 
realized the U.S. public could not see the reality of the death chamber.

"I came out and I vomited. I'd never watched a human being be killed, that I 
knew, and I remember thinking it was very clear: People are never going to get 
close to this."

Before discussing capital punishment it is important to talk to people about 
the crime scene itself, she said.

"If you don't go to that place and let them know you feel the outrage too, 
they'll never be able to come over with you finally to the place where they can 
have compassion for the person (convicted)."

Prejean said Francis' influence and support are never far away.

"The Pope's like a little lighthouse, and he keeps sending out that beam - this 
is what it's about."

(source: catholicregister.org)