[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, PENN., DEL., W.VA., GA., FLA., MISS.

[Rick Halperin]

Jan. 29


TEXAS----new execution date

Robert Roberson has been given an execution date for June 21; it should be 
considered serious.

(sources: MC/RH)

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

Executions under Greg Abbott, Jan. 21, 2015-present----15

Executions in Texas: Dec. 7, 1982----present-----533

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

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---------June 21------------------Robert Roberson-------541

24---------July 14------------------Perry Williams--------542

(sources: TDCJ & Rick Halperin)






PENNSYLVANIA----new (non-serious) execution dates:

Death date set for man convicted in 1984 Cheltenham murder of Ottsville man


The Pennsylvania Department of Corrections this week signed off on notices of 
execution for 3 death-row inmates.

Of the 3, Thomas Meadows was sentenced by a Montgomery County jury to die while 
Christopher Johnson was co-prosecuted in Adams County by a Montgomery County 
prosecutor.

The notices of execution, which list execution dates of March 15 for Meadows 
and March 18 for for Johnson, are a formality because there is a moratorium on 
executions that was signed by Gov. Tom Wolf while state lawmakers review the 
death penalty with an eye toward reforms.

Formerly of Philadelphia, Meadows, who is now 69, has been sitting on death row 
since 1990 following his 1st-degree murder conviction for the 1984 drug-related 
killing of a Bucks County man at his girlfriend's apartment in Cheltenham.

A Montgomery County jury handed Meadows the death penalty for the shooting 
death of James Hayes, 34, of Ottsville. Hayes died from a single gunshot wound 
to the heart.

Johnson, 29, of Adams County, received his death sentence for the 2010 shooting 
death of state wildlife conservation officer David Grove during an alleged deer 
poaching incident.

Grove is the only state game warden killed in the line of duty.

New Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin R. Steele, who was Adams County's 
1st assistant district attorney at the time, took vacation time in 2012 to help 
prosecute Johnson.

"This is just another step that will lead to the ultimate penalty," said 
Steele, explaining that the execution date triggers other appeal rights 
available to the defendants.

The last Pennsylvania execution occurred in July 1999 when Gary M. Heidnik, 
Philadelphia's "House of Horrors" killer, was put to death by lethal injection 
for the deaths of 2 of the 6 women he had kidnapped, raped and tortured in 1986 
and 1987.

The 3rd inmate, Jeffrey Martin, is scheduled to be executed March 16. He was 
prosecuted in Greene County.

(source: Bucks County Courier Times)






DELAWARE:

A bill that would abolish Delaware's death penalty has failed to clear the 
state House


An effort to abolish Delaware's death penalty failed in the state House on 
Thursday, but proponents of the measure say they will continue fighting until 
capital punishment is outlawed.

The legislation, which would not apply to inmates currently on death row, 
received 16 votes, short of the 21 needed for passage. 23 lawmakers voted 
against the bill, which Democratic Gov. Jack Markell has said he would sign.

"I had hoped that after giving the arguments careful consideration, the House 
would realize, as I did, that the death penalty is an instrument of imperfect 
justice," Markell said in a prepared statement. "I understand that it is an 
incredibly difficult issue, and I respect all viewpoints. While this was not 
the time to repeal the death penalty, I believe that time will come."

Supporters of the bill, which cleared the Senate last year by a single vote, 
said they would try to resurrect the measure after a 5-week break for budget 
committee meetings. Under House rules, a bill that has been defeated can be 
recalled for another vote within 3 legislative days upon the request of a 
member on the prevailing side. Rep. Kim Williams, a Newport Democrat who 
supports abolishing the death penalty, deliberately voted against the bill so 
she could have it brought back up in March.

Meanwhile, Delaware's Supreme Court agreed to accept and answer questions 
submitted by a Superior Court judge on the constitutionality of Delaware's 
death penalty statute in light of 2 U.S. Supreme Court rulings earlier this 
month.

Delaware has 13 inmates on death row but does not have the necessary chemicals 
to carry out an execution if one were ordered.

Supporters of the repeal bill, including many clerics, argue that the death 
penalty is morally wrong, racially discriminatory, ineffective as a deterrent 
to violent crime and far more costly than sentencing killers to life in prison 
without parole.

"The death penalty is disproportionately applied to already marginalized 
populations," said chief House sponsor Rep. Sean Lynn, D-Dover, adding that the 
roots of capital punishment in Delaware are "forever mired in our history, our 
past, of slavery and segregation."

Several other Democratic lawmakers also spoke in favor of the bill during an 
emotional, hourlong debate.

The only person to speak against the bill was Mary Cairns, invited by House 
Minority Leader Danny Short, R-Seaford, to speak on behalf of the parents of 
Lindsey Bonistall. Bonistall, a 20-year-old University of Delaware student from 
White Plains, New York, was raped and murdered in 2005 by a man now on death 
row.

"By a show of hands, how many of you sitting here today have had their daughter 
beaten, raped, choked to death and set on fire in a random act of violence?" 
Cairns asked as lawmakers sat in silence. "Anybody?"

Opponents of the bill, including many in the law enforcement community, have 
argued that it is a necessary and just punishment for those who commit heinous 
murders. Among lawmakers voting against the bill were House Speaker Pete 
Schwartzkopf, D-Rehoboth, and Judiciary Committee chairman Rep. John Mitchell, 
D-Elsmere, both retired police officers.

Judiciary Committee members voted 6-5 last May not to send the bill to the full 
House after it passed the Senate. The bill languished in the committee until 
last week, when Mitchell agreed to send it to the full House.

"I remain hopeful," Lynn said after Thursday's vote. "This is going to 
happen.... It's going to happen, either by the courts or by the legislature."

Delaware's death penalty has had a tortuous history over the past 50 years.

In 1958, Gov. J. Caleb Boggs signed a bill abolishing the death penalty, making 
Delaware only the 2nd state in the nation, after Missouri, to abolish capital 
punishment.

3 years later, lawmakers passed a bill reinstating the death penalty after the 
killings of an elderly Sussex County farm couple. Gov. Elbert Carvel vetoed the 
measure, but Senate and House lawmakers overrode him.

In 1991, lawmakers held a special session to change Delaware's death penalty 
law, giving judges the final say on whether to impose the death penalty after 
considering a jury's recommendation. The move came amid public outrage after 4 
men convicted of robbing and murdering 2 armored car guards all received life 
sentences after jurors could not unanimously agree on the death penalty.

(source: Associated Press)






WEST VIRGINIA:

Marshall anthropologist to hold book signing for capital case publication


Dr. Robin Conley, assistant professor of anthropology at Marshall University, 
will sign copies of her latest book, "Confronting the Death Penalty: How 
Language Influences Jurors in Capital Cases," from 4 to 6 p.m. Friday, Jan. 29, 
at Empire Books and News in downtown Huntington.

The publication explores the means by which language helps to make death 
penalty decisions possible - how specific linguistic choices mediate and 
restrict jurors', attorneys' and judges' actions and experiences while serving 
and reflecting on capital trials.

"Language is one of the primary resources we use to make sense of our worlds 
and the things we do, so I was interested in how language might facilitate this 
very difficult task," Conley said.

Drawing from her 15 months of ethnographic fieldwork in diverse counties across 
Texas, Conley noted the specific linguistic choices attorneys make to affect 
how juries and others view their clients and cases.

"Calling a defendant 'that guy,' for instance, instead of by his first name, 
can dehumanize him and I found that jurors in fact used forms like this when 
talking about sentencing defendants to death," Conley said.

"Another, less recognized linguistic choice that I write about is how jurors 
talked about their own role in defendants' death sentences. Many of them used 
language that decreased their own responsibility for defendants' deaths.

"I argue that this is one of the ways they enabled themselves to render a death 
sentence."

In addition to signing copies and taking part in a question-and-answer session, 
Conley will read a short excerpt from the 256-page book, as well as talk about 
how she came to research capital jurors, what it was like spending time in 
Texas death penalty trials and some of the goals she had in writing the book.

(source: Herald-Dispatch)






GEORGIA----impending execution

Brandon Astor Jones says death sentence disproportionate for crime


Attorneys for Brandon Astor Jones asked a court to stop his execution set for 
Tuesday because his death sentence is excessive given the crimes he committed.

At the same time on Thursday, Jones lost in federal appeals court as he 
scrambled to stop the lethal injection set for next week for the 1979 murder of 
a Cobb County convenience store manager.

Jones is the oldest person on Georgia's death row. If he is put to death as 
planned, he will also be the oldest person the state has ever executed as he 
will be 11 days from his 73rd birthday.

Jones was sentenced to die for for robbing and murdering Roger Tackett, who had 
stayed after closing at the Tenneco convenience store and gas station to finish 
paperwork. Jones and co-defendant Van Roosevelt Solomon were convicted of 
shooting Tackett 5 times. They were immediately arrested because a Cobb County 
police officer had just pulled up with a stranded motorist who wanted to use a 
pay phone at the business.

1 reason Jones' case has survived almost 37 years is a federal court in 1989 
ordered him re-sentenced because jurors had a Bible in the room while they 
deliberated his punishment. Solomon was electrocuted in 1985.

In a filing in the Superior Court in Butts County, where the prison that houses 
death row is located, Jones' lawyers argued it's rare for a murderer to be 
sentenced to die if the crime that made the case eligible for the death 
sentence was armed robbery. A death sentence can be given only is certain 
circumstances such as when certain felonies were committed at the same time as 
the murder, if he crime was exceptionally horrendous or if a law enforcement 
officer was killed.

His lawyers wrote that Jones' execution would be "unconstitutionally 
disproportionate and excessive" because "in Georgia today" his crime would not 
be considered the worst of the worst and deserving of capital punishment.

"Even at the time of Mr. Jones' original sentence in 1979, a death sentence for 
a murder that occurred in those circumstances was an anomaly," his lawyers 
wrote.

"Since the time of Mr. Jones' crime, a death sentence for a murder that occurs 
in the context of a place-of-business armed robbery has fallen into complete 
extinction," they wrote. "A death penalty has not been imposed in Georgia for a 
murder committed during an armed robbery in the last 20 years."

Not long after his lawyers filed in the state court, he lost before the 11th 
U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Jones wanted to challenge the effectiveness of his lawyers during his 
re-sentencing in 1997, claiming those attorneys did not tell the jury about his 
abusive childhood or other details from his life that might have swayed the 
jury to choose for life instead of death.

On Thursday, the 11th Circuit declined to re-open Jones' claims that his trial 
lawyers provided him ineffective counsel during the mitigation phase of his 
capital trial.

Judge Stanley Marcus wrote for the majority that Jones "has offered no new 
arguments to reconsider the soundness of that decision."

Jones' lawyers also have asked that all 11 judges on the court of appeals 
consider the constitutionality of Georgia's lethal injection secrecy law. So 
far, on 3-judge panels have decided when it has been raised by other condemned 
murderers. The 3-judge panel said in Thursday's 28-page ruling the court would 
address that request in a separate order.

(source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

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

Death-Row Inmate's Case Targets Georgia's Strict Secrecy Law


Lawyers for an inmate set to die in days are asking a conflicted federal 
appeals court to weaken Georgia's law that keeps secret the source of the 
state's lethal injection drug. It's the toughest of a number of secrecy laws 
passed in recent years by death penalty states eager to stabilize their 
execution drug supplies.

States say the laws protect companies that fear retaliation for their 
association with the death penalty. Most were enacted after drug manufacturers, 
many of them in Europe, stopped selling their products for executions, citing 
ethical concerns.

"There are certainly secrecy laws in other states, and some of them create 
extraordinary secrecy, but nothing reaches the level of Georgia," said Megan 
McCracken, a death penalty expert at the University of California at Berkeley.

Georgia stopped a lethal injection in March because of a problem with the drug, 
the barbiturate pentobarbital made by a compounding pharmacy. A Department of 
Corrections video shows solid white chunks falling against the syringe's 
plunger in a solution that should be clear. Citing this example, some 11th U.S. 
Circuit Court of Appeals judges have expressed concern about Georgia's secrecy 
law.

Lawyers for death row inmate Brandon Astor Jones - convicted of killing a 
convenience store manager in 1979 and scheduled to die Tuesday - argue that 
Georgia's execution method carries "a substantial risk of significant harm," 
violating his constitutional right against cruel and unusual punishment. But 
because of the secrecy law, they say, they don't have enough information to 
make that claim, which violates his due process right.

Similar arguments have been rejected by three-judge panels of the 11th Circuit, 
setting a binding precedent.

Georgia's law says the identifying information of any entity or person 
participating in an execution is a "confidential state secret," meaning it 
can't be revealed - not even for a judge's review or under seal in a court 
case.

After the defective drug halted Kelly Gissendaner's execution in March, 
officials investigated and took steps to ensure it wouldn't happen again, state 
lawyers argued in response to Jones' complaint. The problem was clearly 
rectified as Gissendaner and 2 other inmates were executed last fall with no 
sign of pain, state lawyers wrote.

But Jones' lawyers say the investigation lacked transparency, and they aren't 
convinced officials determined the problem's cause.

Gissendaner's lawyers, including at least one now representing Jones, raised 
similar arguments before her rescheduled execution in September. A three-judge 
panel of the 11th Circuit rejected those claims, but in a dissenting opinion 
Circuit Judge Adalberto Jordan said the state's secrecy was troubling.

"Georgia can certainly choose, as a matter of state law, to keep much of its 
execution protocol secret, but it cannot hide behind that veil of secrecy once 
something has gone demonstrably wrong with the compounded pentobarbital it has 
procured," Jordan wrote. "It is not too much to require Georgia to put on some 
evidence that will provide some level of confidence that its compounded 
pentobarbital is no longer a problem."

In December, the same attorneys represented another condemned inmate and again 
raised constitutional concerns about the law.

Jordan was on that panel, too. This time, he conceded the challenge was barred 
by circuit precedent but said he believed that precedent was incorrect. Circuit 
Judge Beverly Martin, also on the panel, agreed.

"Of course, I recognize the State's need to obtain a reliable source for its 
lethal injection drugs," Martin wrote. "But there must be a way for Georgia to 
do this job without depriving ... condemned prisoners of any ability to subject 
the State's method of execution to meaningful adversarial testing before they 
are put to death."

Martin also worried about the lack of court access to the information. Federal 
courts routinely keep secret information revealed in judicial proceedings - for 
example, in the grand jury process or in trade secret cases - so surely there's 
a way to do so for death penalty cases, she wrote.

State lawyers say Jones doesn't have a right to know every detail of the 
execution method, an argument that's been made in 11th Circuit opinions. State 
lawyers also say the law protects the source of the drugs from "rabid 
manipulations of death penalty opponents."

Citing the doubts raised by Jordan and Martin - as well as a 2014 opinion by 
11th Circuit Judge Charles Wilson noting "the disturbing circularity problem 
created by Georgia's secrecy law" - Jones' lawyers argue that three judges on 
that federal appeals court have now suggested that law doesn't comply with the 
Constitution.

If the distribution of judges on the panels had been different, their opinion 
might be precedent, Jones' lawyers argue. They're requesting a full-court 
review by the 11th Circuit, which could overturn the established precedent.

Any full-court ruling would be significant as it would be binding in Georgia 
pending any appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, said Robert Dunham with the Death 
Penalty Information Center, which tracks issues related to capital punishment. 
It also could serve as a reference for lawmakers in other states and would have 
persuasive, though not binding, authority in other federal courts, he said.

(source: Associated Press)






FLORIDA:

Florida Lawmakers Urged to Require Unanimous Verdicts in Death Penalty Cases


A Florida Senate panel heard Wednesday from prosecutors, judges, public 
defenders and experts about how to fix the death-penalty process after the U.S. 
Supreme Court struck down the state's capital sentencing structure this month.

The Senate Criminal Justice Committee workshop focused on the impact of the 
decision, known as Hurst v. Florida, which found the state's system of allowing 
judges - not juries - to impose the death penalty is unconstitutional.

Much of the testimony from defense lawyers, judges and prosecutors also dealt 
with issues related to but not explicitly addressed in the Jan. 12 ruling.

The 8-1 decision was centered on what are known as "aggravating" circumstances 
that must be found before defendants can be sentenced to death. A 2002 U.S. 
Supreme Court ruling, in a case known as Ring v. Arizona, requires that 
determination of such aggravating circumstances be made by juries, not judges.

Under Florida law, juries make recommendations regarding the death penalty, 
based on a review of aggravating and mitigating circumstances, but judges 
ultimately decide whether defendants should be put to death or sentenced to 
life in prison.

Florida law also does not require that the jury recommendations to impose death 
sentences be unanimous, making the state an "outlier" compared to others with 
capital punishment, Bob Dunham of the Washington, D.C.-based Death Penalty 
Information Center, told the committee.

While Florida only requires a simple majority recommendation from juries, 
Alabama and Delaware - the only other states that do not require unanimity - 
both require at least nine jurors to vote in favor of capital punishment.

Being so outside of the mainstream puts Florida at risk in a future Supreme 
Court ruling, Dunham said.

Nearly all of the speakers Wednesday recommended that the Legislature require 
unanimous verdicts in death penalty sentences, as is required for all other 
verdicts under state law.

Capital Collateral Counsel for the Southern Region Neal Dupree said the lack of 
unanimity is "disconcerting" in death sentences.

"We require a jury to be unanimous in every other aspect of law, why shouldn't 
a unanimous jury be required in this instance?" said Dupree, whose state-backed 
agency represents death row inmates.

O.H. "Bill" Eaton, a retired Florida judge and death penalty expert, told the 
panel that requiring unanimous verdicts in death penalty sentences would 
require jurors to be more deliberative.

"When you have a unanimous verdict, everybody's got to work and they've got to 
come to grips with a decision," Eaton said.

But Brad King, the state attorney for the 5th Judicial Circuit, which includes 
Ocala, said unanimous verdicts should be required for decisions regarding 
aggravating circumstances but not for whether the death penalty should be 
imposed. King suggested that 9-3 decisions for sentencing would suffice.

Allowing 1 juror "with no qualifications" related to the death penalty to 
prevent a death sentence would "give them absolute control over what that 
sentence is," King said.

"You allow them to control the entire process," he said.

Committee Chairman Greg Evers assembled the speakers and asked them to make 
specific recommendations to the Legislature about how to fix the problem with 
the sentencing process.

Florida Solicitor General Allen Winsor, who works for Attorney General Pam 
Bondi and who argued the Hurst case before the U.S. Supreme Court last fall, 
told the committee that his office did not have any suggestions about how the 
state should respond.

"You're really not going to give us any recommendations?" Evers said.

Under questioning from Senate Minority Leader Arthenia Joyner, Winsor remained 
reticent.

"What he's going to do is he wants us to come up with the decision and then 
they're going to work with us on it," Evers, R-Baker, said.

Lawmakers are also grappling with whether the Hurst ruling should apply 
retroactively to already-sentenced death row inmates, something the U.S. 
Supreme Court did not address in its ruling.

Dupree is representing Cary Michael Lambrix, a death row inmate scheduled to be 
executed on Feb. 11. The Florida Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in the 
case, including the impact of the Hurst decision, on Tuesday.

Dupree said Florida lawmakers should follow their own example in a 1972 law 
passed in anticipation of a U.S. Supreme Court decision in a case known as 
Furman v. Georgia that resulted in a nationwide moratorium on the death 
penalty. The law, still on the books, required that all death sentences be 
reduced to life imprisonment if a U.S. Supreme Court decision finds that the 
state's death penalty statute is unconstitutional.

Sen. David Simmons asked the panel whether the 1972 law would have to be 
applied in the wake of the Hurst ruling, but received mixed responses from the 
experts.

Evers said the Senate will pass "some type of death penalty reform" during the 
legislative session. After the meeting, he said he intends to propose a measure 
that will require juries to impose death sentences and that it will also 
address how many jurors must decide on the sentence.

"I can't guarantee it will be unanimous, but the numbers will change," Evers 
said. "We're going to look at it to where we don't have to come back here and 
we can put Florida's death penalty to rest."

(source: flaglerlive.com)



MISSISSIPPI:

Death row inmate gains access to psychologist


The Mississippi Supreme Court has ruled death row inmate Alan Dale Walker has a 
right to be visited by a neuropsychologist in preparation for a post-conviction 
evidentiary hearing.

A 5-4 decision handed down Thursday said Dr. Robert Shaffer should not be 
denied access to Walker, who has been on death row since he received the death 
penalty Aug. 12, 1991.

Walker, 50, was convicted in the Sept. 8, 1990, kidnapping, rape and drowning 
of Konya Rebecca Edwards, 19, at Crystal Lake in Harrison County. Walker was 
prosecuted in Warren County.

Walker had asked that the doctor be allowed to visit him in preparation for a 
hearing.

Harrison County Circuit Court Judge Chris Schmidt denied the request Nov. 4, 
2015, with no finding that allowing the doctor access would violate rules and 
regulations of the state prison system, the order said.

Death row inmates should have access to their experts as long as it violates no 
rules or regulations and doesn't violate an inmate's due-process rights, said 
Associate Justice James W. Kitchens, writing for the court.

Walker has filed several appeals, to include claiming his legal representation 
was inadequate and wanting a new sentencing hearing.

The costs of the latest appeal will be billed to Harrison County.

(source: sunherald.com)