[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, DEL., GA., FLA., ILL.

[Rick Halperin]

Jan. 26



TEXAS:

Texas Prepares for Execution of James Freeman on January 27, 2016


James Garrett Freeman's execution is scheduled to occur at 6 pm CST on 
Wednesday, January 27, 2016, at the Walls Unit of the Huntsville State 
Penitentiary in Huntsville, Texas. 35-year-old James is convicted of the murder 
of 34-year-old Wharton County Game Warden Justin Hurst on March 17, 2007, in 
Lissie, Texas. James has spent the last 7 years of his life on Texas' death 
row.

James was known to be easily angered and had a progressive history of alcohol 
abuse. He had previously received citations for driving under the influence. He 
was also on probation for driving while intoxicated. James graduated from high 
school and worked as a welder prior to his arrest.

After several complaints of shots being fired at night, Texas Game Warden 
Jonathan Blackburn surveilled the area on Friday, March 16, 2007. Around 11:00 
pm, he saw a truck driving slowly and then heard a gunshot from a small caliber 
rifle, such as a .22. As it is against the law to fire shots or hunt from the 
side of the road, Blackburn investigated.

As he drove towards the vehicle, Blackburn activated his "red and blue lights." 
The truck did not stop, driving past Blackburn. Blackburn followed the vehicle 
down various roads with speeds ranging from 45 to 100 miles per hour. He also 
requested back-up from Wharton County Sheriff's Office. 2 officers in marked 
patrol cars joined the pursuit and took over as the lead from Blackburn. 3 
other officers also joined the pursuit.

Texas Game Warden Justin Hurst, who was not part of the chase, told officers 
that he was going to attempt to set up a roadblock. The driver of the truck was 
able to avoid the roadblock, and Hurst joined the pursuit. The chase ensued for 
at least another 30 minutes. Blackburn indicated that there was no spot where 
the suspect could have pulled over to stop. The suspect also managed to avoid 
several spike strips.

During the chase, a dispatcher determined, from the license plate, that the 
truck belonged to James Freeman. Blackburn, along with another officer, were 
both familiar with Freeman, as they had written him a ticket a year earlier. 
Initially, officers believed that the vehicle had been stolen, as the driver's 
behavior did not match what they knew of Freeman. Freeman was later determined 
to be the driver.

Eventually, Freeman drove over a spike strip, causing him to pull over and 
stop. As Freeman exited the truck, keeping the truck between him and the police 
officers, he began firing on the officers. Freeman fired until he appeared to 
be out of ammunition, with the officers returning fire. He then "disappeared" 
and "came back out with a long gun," an AK-47 assault rifle. Freeman continued 
firing at the police. Hurst moved out from under cover for a clear shot. He was 
shot on his left side and died from his injuries.

The Supreme Court of the United States has refused to review Freeman's case. 
The court gave no reason for actions.

Please pray for peace and healing for the family of Justin Hurst. Please pray 
for strength for the family of James Freeman. Please pray that if James is 
innocent, lacks the competency to be executed, or should not be executed for 
any other reason, that evidence will be presented prior to his execution. 
Please pray that James may come to find peace through a personal relationship 
with Jesus Christ, if he has not already.

(source: theforgivenessfoundation.org)






DELAWARE:

Gallows or Gurney?: The last hanging in the U.S. was only 20 years ago today


Back in 1979, a Delaware convict named Billy Bailey was assigned to a 
work-release facility in Wilmington.

But one day, for whatever reason, Bailey decided he wasn't going back to the 
center. He turned up at his foster sister's house and went with her husband on 
an errand.

While on the way, Bailey asked the man to stop at a liquor store. Bailey, armed 
with a gun, robbed the clerk. The foster sister's husband dropped Bailey off 
about a mile and a half from the liquor store. Bailey went to a house where an 
elderly man and his wife lived. He shot and killed them both. He was arrested 
as he fled the scene.

Bailey was tried and convicted in 1980. He got the death penalty.

It was 16 years later that he paid the ultimate price. On Jan. 25, 1996 - 20 
years ago today - Bailey became the last man to be hanged in the U.S.

That's right. He was hanged. You see, Delaware did not adopt lethal injection 
until after Bailey was sentenced. So he was given the choice of the gallows or 
the gurney. He opted for the noose.

It was the 1st hanging in Delaware in 50 years. 1 of only 3 in the entire 
country since 1965. A new gallows had to be built. An inexperienced hangman 
trained.

Today, hanging is considered by many to be barbaric. Only the states of 
Washington and New Hampshire still allow it under certain circumstances, though 
Washington has a moratorium on the death penalty and New Hampshire hasn't 
executed anyone since 1939.

These days, lethal injection is the method of choice. But that's being 
challenged in courts across the land. Some say it is cruel because the 
condemned prisoner might feel pain.

We don't agree. In our view lethal injection is much more humane than the 
suffering inflicted on the victims of these convicted killers. We suspect most 
readers feel the same.

But, if lethal injection is ever found unconstitutional, there is always the 
rope. It may not have been used in 20 years, but it has never been thrown out 
by the Supreme Court.

(source: Editorial, Texarkana Gazette)






GEORGIA----impending execution

Brandon Astor Jones asks appeals court to stay next week's execution


Attorneys for Brandon Astor Jones on Monday asked the federal appeals court in 
Atlanta to stop his execution scheduled for next Tuesday. The lawyers say all 
11 judges on the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals should have time, as a 
collected group, to hear them challenge the law that shrouds Georgia's 
execution process in secrecy.

In a filing late Monday, Jones' lawyers wrote that at least 3 of the 11 judges 
on the court of appeals have questioned the legality of the state's secrecy 
law, but no 2 of them have been on the same panel at once. So far, each 
skeptical judge has been outnumbered whenever a 3-judge panel was convened.

"In the 30 months since the secrecy act became law, 6 judges of this court have 
addressed whether (Georgia's) use of it comports with the Constitution," Jones' 
lawyers wrote. "6 have suggested that it does not.

"But by the happenstance of how those judges were distributed among the panels" 
the law has withstood challenge by those facing death who say they have a 
constitutional right to know who makes the deadly doses of pentobarbital that 
Georgia uses to carry out lethal injections.

"Given the division within the court on so grave a question, Mr. Jones 
respectfully submits that the time is ripe for this court to address these 
issues" as a group, Jones' lawyers wrote.

At least 6 of the 11 judges on the appeals court must agree to hear Jones' 
appeal before the entire court will take it.

To ensure a supply of lethal injection drugs, Georgia is one of several states 
that have laws protecting the identities of pharmacists who prepared the drugs. 
The statues were adopted as sources for lethal injection drugs became scarce 
because of public pressure on drug makers.

Jones' lawyers have said condemned killers are entitled to know who made their 
lethal injection drugs and the pharmacist's qualifications to ensure that their 
deaths will not be torturous.

So far, courts nationwide have supported secrecy laws like Georgia's, ruling 
that they are the only way to ensure that the death penalty can be carried out.

But Jones' lawyers say the entire court hearing this issue now is more pressing 
because of problems with lethal injection drugs that were prepared for 2 
executions early last year, but were delayed because the pentobarbital was 
cloudy. The state still supposedly uses the pharmacist who made drugs for the 
executions of Kelly Gissendaner and Brian Keith Terrell that were set for last 
March but delayed because the drugs were cloudy

Jones' lawyers wrote in a complaint, which the district court threw out last 
week, that had the state moved forward with executions of Gissendaner and 
Terrell using the cloudy pentobarbital, the "injection of a precipitated 
solution would be akin to having small pieces of broken glass projected into 
your blood vessels." Both Gissendaner and Terrell have since been executed 
using new batches of the drug.

Jones' lawyers said the Department of Corrections, which carries out executions 
for the state, should at least find another source for the drugs, rather than 
using the pharmacist who made the lethal injection drugs for Gissendaner and 
Terrell almost a year ago.

Jones is scheduled to die next week for the 1979 murder of the manager of a 
Cobb County convenience store, Roger Tackett. Jones and his partner, Van 
Roosevelt Solomon, shot Tackett 5 times - once in the thumb and twice in his 
hip and head - leaving him dead on the storeroom floor. Jones and Solomon were 
captured as they emerged from the storeroom at the Tenneco gas station and 
convenience store.

The state electrocuted Solomon in 1985. But a federal court threw out Jones' 
sentence in 1989 because jurors had a Bible in the room while they deliberated. 
But Jones was retried and re-sentenced to death in 1997.

Jones is the oldest man on Georgia's death row. If he is executed, he will be 
the oldest man Georgia has ever put to death. He will be 11 days shy of his 
73rd birthday.

(source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

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

Capital case: Defense argues against showing jurors gruesome photos


Jurors in the death penalty trial of Brandon Conner may need stout 
constitutions to withstand the evidence they'll be shown.

That's because the evidence may include photos of the charred bodies of 
Conner's 32-year-old girlfriend Rosella "Mandy" Mitchell and their 6-month-old 
son Dylan Conner, found Aug. 21, 2014 in their burned 1324 Winifred Lane home.

In a hearing on pretrial motions Monday before Muscogee Superior Court Judge 
William Rumer, defense attorneys William Kendrick and Mark Shelnutt made 2 
arguments that became tied together:

-- They claimed Conner's indictment is deficient in that it does not specify 
the infant's cause of death.

-- They said showing the jury gruesome photos from the crime would serve only 
to inflame jurors' passions, subjecting Conner to unfair prejudice.

1 count in Conner's indictment says Dylan was killed in "a manner unknown to 
the grand jury at this time." Another says Conner assaulted the baby "with an 
object unknown to the grand jury at this time."

The mother's autopsy showed she was stabbed to death before the fire, leaving 
wounds on her neck and torso, authorities said.

Kendrick said the defense can't adequately fight Conner's murder charges 
regarding the infant if they don't know how he's accused of killing the child: 
"We're at a loss as to how to defend him on those counts."

Prosecutor Wesley Lambertus said the baby's precise cause of death remains 
undetermined because the body was so badly burned the medical examiner was 
unable to specify what killed the child. He also said the law does not require 
such precision to sustain an indictment.

The courts have held that the circumstances of some homicides do not permit 
greater certainty as to a cause of death, he said.

He cited as an example the case of McKibbins v. State, a 2013 Georgia Supreme 
Court decision regarding the murder of a man suspected of stealing cocaine. The 
defendant and his accomplices cut the victim's body up with a chainsaw and 
buried the pieces.

On appeal, the convict argued his indictment for "kidnapping with bodily 
injury" neglected to specify how he injured the victim. The justices ruled that 
detail was unnecessary as long as the defendant properly was charged under the 
law.

Beyond that, the judges said the circumstances precluded such a determination, 
as the body "was so dismembered and decomposed that the medical examiner was 
unable to definitively ascertain his injuries and cause of death."

As for admitting into evidence gruesome photographs, Lambertus cited court 
precedents in which judges allowed the introduction of crime-scene and autopsy 
photos to aid in the testimony of medical examiners, who typically explain how 
victims died, but also could be called to explain why autopsies failed to 
determine a cause of death.

On that issue, the prosecutor referred to a Georgia Supreme Court case decided 
just last week, Simpson v. The State, an opinion delivered Jan. 19.

In that case the defendant was convicted of beating a man to death with a 
2-by-4 board, a computer and a computer monitor, and leaving the victim in a 
vacant house the 2 broke into.

On appeal, the convict complained the crime-scene and autopsy photographs shown 
the jury were prejudicial. Some photos showed the victim's skull after the 
flesh was removed.

"Those crime-scene and pre-autopsy photographs were properly admitted into 
evidence to show the nature and extent of the wounds and the location of 
physical evidence at the scene, as well as to assist the testimony of the 
medical examiner," the court ruled.

It said the photos of the victim's skull were necessary to show "different 
injuries that were identified only upon examining the exposed skull.... 
Consequently, the trial court did not abuse its discretion when it admitted the 
post-autopsy photographs."

Rumer did not immediately rule on these issues, and instead asked attorneys to 
file motions supporting their arguments by noon Monday, Feb. 8.

The defense also argued Monday that Rumer should issue a gag order prohibiting 
prosecutors from publicly discussing the case, claiming the district attorney's 
staff risked tainting the jury pool with details of the investigation.

District Attorney Julia Slater countered that her office has not released any 
details of the double-homicide, but said she would not object if a gag order 
applied to both the prosecution and defense. Rumer asked attorneys on both 
sides to draft gag orders for him to consider.

The judge did not rule Monday on any of the dozens of defense motions filed in 
Conner's case. A 2nd round of pretrial hearings is set for Feb. 15.

Other defense motions ask Rumer to suppress evidence patrol officers found on 
Conner after the homicides, when they noticed him sitting in his 2001 BMW 740i 
on Cedar Avenue off Wynnton Road.

The officers said Conner was "nervous, shaking, sweating profusely, and had 
blood on his face and clothing," according to prosecutors.

After questioning him, police charged him with making false statements to law 
enforcement, and impounded his car.

Officers by policy search suspects before putting them in a patrol car. 
Searching Conner, they found "a bloody glove, a bloody baby wipe, and 2 
lighters in his pockets," according to prosecutors.

Court documents say police got a warrant to search the BMW, in which they found 
"a knife and bloody clothing."

In moving to suppress such evidence, Conner's defense attorneys argue police 
had no probable cause to detain and search him, because he had done nothing to 
arouse suspicion, as his car "was lawfully parked outside his place of 
employment, Davis Broadcasting on Cedar Avenue in Columbus...."

(source: ledger-enquirer.com)

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

Brandon Conner's attorney requests murder charges to be dropped


During a preliminary motions hearing on Monday, the attorney of a Columbus man 
accused of killing his girlfriend and infant son argued the constitutionality 
of his death penalty sentencing.

Brandon Conner faces 2 counts of malice murder, 2 counts of felony murder, 1 
count of aggravated battery, 1 count of felony arson and using a knife to 
commit a felony. Police say he stabbed his girlfriend Rosella Mitchell and set 
their home on fire killing Mitchell and 6-month-old son Dylan Mitchell.

Conner was indicted by a grand jury in April 2014, and shortly after the 
district attorney's office announced its plan to seek the death penalty.

Nearly 30 motions were filed Monday by the defense, including a motion to 
exclude before and after life photos of the victims from the trial, a motion to 
include police body camera footage and a motion to include the 911 call as 
evidence in the jury trial.

Defense attorneys Mark Shelnutt and William Kendrick presented the 
International Covenant of Civil and Political rights as a basis for their claim 
that the death penalty is a violation of international law. The district 
attorney's office opposed their motion on the basis that state law trumps 
international law.

Shelnutt and Kendrick also requested 2 of the murder charges either be dropped 
or tried separately, arguing that malice murder requires a weapon and although 
the coroner confirmed stab wounds as the cause of death for Mitchell, the cause 
of death for the infant remains undetermined.

Kendrick also mentioned investigating the DA's history of death penalty 
indictments to determine whether or not African Americans are 
disproportionately sentenced to death.

We reached out to the district attorney for comment, but they declined saying 
that the attorney's on both sides have agreed to a gag order.

The prosecution and defense agreed to finalize 11 motions before the next 
hearing.

The other motions will be determined by Judge Rumor at the next preliminary 
hearing on Feb. 15.

(source: WTVM news)






FLORIDA:

Death-penalty sentencing to get look----Senate committee to look at the issue 
afer U.S. Supreme Court tossed out state's method


A Senate committee this week will begin working on a legislative fix after the 
U.S. Supreme Court tossed out Florida's death-penalty sentencing method.

The court Jan. 12 found that the method violates the U.S. Constitution's Sixth 
Amendment right to a trial by jury because it gives too much power to judges in 
imposing death sentences.

That will force lawmakers to approve changes in the death-penalty system and 
has raised questions about death row inmates sentenced in the past under the 
old method.

The Senate Criminal Justice Committee on Wednesday has set aside an entire 
meeting to hear presentations from Senate staff members and representatives of 
several agencies and groups, including Attorney General Pam Bondi's office, 
Gov. Rick Scott's office, the Florida Prosecuting Attorneys Association, the 
Florida Public Defenders Association, The Florida Association of Criminal 
Defense Lawyers, the Office of the Capital Collateral Regional Counsel and The 
Florida Bar.

(source: Florida Times-Union)

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

Pinellas judge rejects death penalty request after Supreme Court ruling


Days after the Supreme Court struck down the way Florida sentences people to 
die, a Pinellas County circuit judge has ruled that the death penalty cannot be 
pursued in a 1st-degree murder case scheduled for trial next month.

In an order filed Friday, judge Michael Andrews rejected prosecutors' notice 
that they intend to seek the death penalty in the case of a Pinellas Park 
father, Steven Dykes, accused of fatally shaking and striking his 3-month-old 
daughter in February of last year.

"This court concludes that there currently exists no death penalty in the State 
of Florida in that there is no procedure in place," Andrews wrote.

The order is the first of its kind in the state following the Hurst vs. Florida 
decision on Jan. 12, said Pinellas-Pasco public defender Bob Dillinger.

In an 8-1 opinion, the Supreme Court found Florida's death penalty procedures 
unconstitutional because juries play only an advisory role in recommending life 
or death. Judges make the ultimate decision after giving "great weight" to 
jurors' recommendations.

Florida, Alabama, and Delaware are the only states that don't require a 
unanimous jury verdict in death penalty cases. Each also allows a judge to 
override a jury's recommendation.

Dillinger, whose office is representing Dykes, said he agreed with Andrews' 
ruling.

"What the judge has done is absolutely correct," Dillinger said, adding Andrews 
is "right on point."

Prosecutors could file an appeal in the case. Another hearing is scheduled on 
Feb. 16, court records show, with the trial slated to begin Feb. 29.

Chief Assistant State Attorney Bruce Bartlett said his office "respectfully" 
disagrees with judge Andrews, adding that the Hurst decision is not final yet. 
That will happen after the state asks for a rehearing. Bartlett also said the 
Legislature still has to create new sentencing guidelines in response to the 
court's decision.

"They issue an opinion and they don't issue any guidelines on how to fix it, 
and what to do next," Bartlett said of the Hurst opinion. "It's just a dilemma 
that faces us because the question is how exactly do you fix it? And they 
didn't really lay out how they thought it should be fixed, so it kind of lends 
you to, you know, potentially all kinds of challenges."

Lawmakers have previously said that they are making fixes to the death penalty 
sentencing system a priority this session.

"It's not the Supreme Court's job to lay out the procedural guidelines," said 
Charles Rose, a Stetson University law professor and the director of the Center 
for Excellence in Advocacy. "That's an issue for every legislature in every 
state to deal with independently."

The fate of other murder cases remains in flux until new sentencing guidelines 
are signed into law, said St. Petersburg criminal lawyer Marc Pelletier.

"Until the Legislature does its part," he said, "we're still going to be in a 
situation where everything's unclear."

Next month, the Florida Supreme Court also will hear oral arguments about 
whether Hurst vs. Florida should be applied retroactively to inmates currently 
on death row.

In the meantime, law experts across the state agreed with Andrews' order.

"The judge has it absolutely right," said Teresa Reid, a University of Florida 
Levin College of Law professor and assistant director of the Criminal Justice 
Center. "You need to have a statute in place regarding sentencing, and we don't 
have that right now."

She said that the judge's responsibility is to make sure the trial is fair and 
is conducted under law.

"It seems to me the appropriate thing to do is wait," she said. "We can't 
proceed when we don't have the procedure in place."

Rose, the Stetson law professor, said the decision "makes perfect sense."

"Judge Andrews should be commended for doing what the law requires," he said. 
"It's not only sound, it's courageous because he's the first to step out on the 
ledge on this issue."

Rose predicted that judges across the state would and should follow suit.

"My expectation is that there won't be any new death penalty cases tried," he 
said.

(source: Tampa Bay Times)

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

Supreme Court denies Delmer Smith appeal


The U.S. Supreme Court has denied an appeal by Delmer Smith, convicted in the 
2009 death of Kathleen Briles at her Terra Ceia home.

The U.S. Supreme Court decision not to hear Smith's case came on Monday. His 
attorneys had petitioned the court to hear his case in October.

In July, the Florida Supreme Court had denied an appeal from Smith on his 
conviction and death sentence.

Smith, who was convicted in August 2012, has argued that should have been 
acquitted because his case was based on circumstantial evidence, that a circuit 
judge erred in not granting him a mistrial, that one of the witnesses in the 
case should not have been allowed to testify,and that a continuance should have 
been granted during the case and the judge erred in sentencing. He also has 
challenged the constitutionality of Florida's death penalty and the 
proportionality of a sentence of death in the case.

After determining that Smith, 44, bludgeoned Briles to death with an antique 
sewing machine, a 12-person jury had unanimously recommended that he receive 
the death penalty.

Defense attorneys had previously asked for a new trial, arguing that then newly 
discovered evidence warranted it: a medical encyclopedia allegedly taken from 
the Briles' home that had Smith's fingerprints on it. Smith's defense attorney 
had said he did not become aware until after the trial that the logo on the 
encyclopedia appeared different from the one on Briles' encyclopedia. The book 
placed Smith inside the victim's home.

Smith's attorneys also had argued during his sentencing that medical scans 
showed damage to Smith's brain, warranting life in prison without parole 
instead of execution.

When he was sentenced for Briles' murder, Smith already had been convicted of a 
robbery and home invasion in Sarasota, and was suspected in several other 
crimes in 2009 in Sarasota and Manatee counties.

Smith is being held at Florida State Prison in Raiford, which houses one of the 
state's 3 death row cell blocks and the state's execution chamber.

(source: Herald-Tribune)



ILLINOIS:

John Marshall Law School Professors Get Lifetime Achievement Awards 2 
Consecutive Years


For 2 years in a row, adjunct professors from The John Marshall Law School in 
Chicago have been awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Illinois 
Judges Association.

Retired Judge Raymond McKoski recently was honored with the Illinois Judges 
Association Lifetime Achievement Award at the Illinois State Bar Association 
luncheon. Retired Judge Sheila Murphy, co-director of John Marshall's 
Restorative Justice Project, received the honor in 2014.

The Lifetime Achievement Award is given as a token of appreciation for the time 
and valuable contributions recipients give to the Illinois Judges Association. 
Winners of the award are selected based on their many years of service and for 
promoting a strong and independent judiciary.

Judge McKoski was first appointed to the bench in 1985. In his more than 25 
years as a judge, he served as an Associate Judge, Circuit Judge and was later 
unanimously elected Chief Judge of the Illinois 19th Judicial Circuit. He is 
renowned for his expertise in judicial ethics and lectures to lawyers and 
judges in the U.S. and the U.K. He recently was the keynote speaker at the 
joint meeting of the Illinois Judges Association and Illinois State Bar 
Association. Judge McKoski has been an adjunct professor at John Marshall since 
2010 and teaches Client Interviewing and Counseling, Professional 
Responsibility and Jury Selection.

Judge Sheila Murphy is a retired judge from the Circuit Court of Cook County. 
Judge Murphy presided over the Sixth District Court in Markham, which 
encompassed 37 towns and more than one million people. She supervised 23 judges 
and was a pioneer in starting community treatment courts. After exonerating 
Verneal Jimerson - a man wrongly convicted of rape and murder - from death row 
in 1996, Judge Murphy retired and worked tirelessly to abolish the death 
penalty in Illinois. She has been an adjunct professor at John Marshall since 
2001, as well as the co-director of the law school's Restorative Justice 
Program. Judge Murphy recently co-edited the book Restorative Justice in 
Practice: A Holistic Approach with John Marshall Restorative Justice Project 
Co-Director Michael Seng.

About The John Marshall Law School

The John Marshall Law School, founded in 1899, is an independent law school 
located in the heart of Chicago's legal, financial and commercial districts. 
The 2016 U.S. News & World Report's America's Best Graduate Schools ranks John 
Marshall's Lawyering Skills Program fifth, its Trial Advocacy Program 16th and 
its Intellectual Property Law Program 17th in the nation. Since its inception, 
John Marshall has been a pioneer in legal education and has been guided by a 
tradition of diversity, innovation, access and opportunity.

(source: globenewswire.com)