[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----OHIO, ARK., KAN., MO., S. DAK.

[Rick Halperin]

Jan. 29



OHIO:

Study finds racial, gender bias in Ohio executions


Ohio's 53 executions shown "vast inequities" in racial, gender and geography, a 
new study concludes.

Research by Frank Baumgartner, a University of North Carolina political science 
professor, are not a revelation to those familiar with Ohio's death penalty, 
which resumed in 1999 after a 36-year hiatus. But it does underline a 
consistent pattern that has been pointed out in state, national and media 
reports for years.

Baumgartner looked at Ohio's 53 executions between 1999 and 2014, finding 
"significant and troubling racial, gender, and geographic disparities with 
regards to who is executed in Ohio." Baumgartner concluded that the victim's 
race and gender, and the county where the murder occurred, influenced whether 
or not the killer was executed.

"The most concerning finding is that these racial and geographic disparities 
are quite significant, and they demonstrate that Ohio's death penalty is 
plagued by vast inequities which will undermine public confidence in the 
state's ability to carry out the death penalty in a fair and impartial manner," 
Baumgartner concluded.

Sharon L. Davies, the executive director of the Kirwan Institute for the Study 
of Race and Ethnicity at Ohio State University, said in response that the "race 
or gender of a victim, and the county of the crime, should not influence who is 
sentenced to die ... Ohio citizens and lawmakers should review the findings of 
this important research."

The study found in 65 % of all executions the murder victim was white. However, 
overall only 43 % of all victims are white. In addition, murderers of white 
females are 6 times more likely to be executed than those who kill black males.

Just 4 counties, Cuyahoga, Hamilton, Lucas and Summit, are responsible 1/2 of 
all executions. There are 69 of 88 counties where no one has been executed.

Hamilton County's execution rate is almost 9 times that of Franklin County.

Ohio Sen. Charleta Tavares, a Columbus Democrat, issued a statement condemning 
Ohio's death death penalty system.

"When you don't prosecute the death of black males as you do white females, you 
are essentially telling black males they are not worth as much, and that their 
lives do not matter," she said. "It is reminiscent of the darkest eras in 
American history, when the death of a white woman was seen as the ultimate 
crime that must be punished to the fullest extent of the law, but the death of 
a black male was not a cause for concern."

(source: Columbus Dispatch)






ARKANSAS:

Death penalty sought in Bay slaying case


Prosecuting Attorney Scott Ellington of Jonesboro will seek the death penalty 
against a man charged with capital murder in the July slaying of an elderly 
Craighead County woman.

Ellington said Thursday that he amended charges filed against Richard Jordan 
Tarver, 30, of Bay to include the imposition of a death sentence if a jury 
convicts Tarver of capital murder. Tarver is accused of killing Lavinda Counce, 
90, of Bay on July 3.

"After careful review of the investigative file, I believe the facts of this 
especially horrific case warrant its use and justice requires it," Ellington 
said in a news release.

Police said family members reported Counce missing July 3. Her car was found a 
day later in the parking lot of NEA Baptist Memorial Hospital in Jonesboro, 
about 10 miles west of Bay.

The hospital's surveillance video showed a man parking Counce's car in the lot 
at 12:56 p.m. July 4 and walking toward U.S. 49, which runs by the hospital.

Searchers found Counce's body in a cornfield west of Bay on July 12. Counce had 
been shot in the head with a large-caliber weapon, Craighead County Sheriff 
Marty Boyd said.

Tarver was arrested at his home on July 17. He lives in a home behind where 
Counce lived.

Ellington said in the release that he considered several factors when deciding 
to include the death penalty in the case. He said Counce was slain for 
pecuniary gain; the defendant inflicted mental anguish prior to her death; 
Tarver inflicted serious physical abuse to Counce before killing her; he showed 
indifference to her suffering and "a sense of pleasure in committing the 
murder;" and the slaying was committed against a person Tarver "should have 
known was especially vulnerable to the attack because of her age and physical 
disability."

Tarver is also charged with kidnapping, aggravated robbery, aggravated 
residential burglary, abuse of a corpse, theft of property and possession of a 
defaced firearm.

He entered a plea of innocent in Craighead County Circuit Court, and 
authorities set his trial for March 14.

(source: Arkansasonline.com)

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

Death penalty sought for man accused of murdering elderly woman


The District Prosecuting Attorney for the Second Judicial District of Arkansas 
is seeking the death penalty against a man accused of abducting and killing an 
elderly woman.

District Attorney Scott Ellington filed amended capital murder charges Thursday 
in Craighead County Circuit Court against Richard Jordon Tarver, 30, of Bay. 
The amended felony information specifies circumstances that would allow 
justification for a jury to impose the death penalty if Tarver is convicted of 
capital murder.

Tarver is accused of kidnapping and killing Lavinda Counce, 90, of Bay. 
Ellington said the following:

"Today on behalf of Ms. Lavinda Counce, her family, and the good people of Bay, 
I have filed notice of my intent to seek the death penalty against Mr. Tarver," 
said Ellington. "After careful review of the investigative file, I believe that 
the facts of this especially horrific case warrant its use and justice requires 
it."

Counce disappeared from her Lunsford Avenue home on July 3, 2015. Her car was 
located the next day at NEA Baptist Hospital in Jonesboro.

After an exhausting 9-day search, a volunteer searcher discovered Counce's body 
on July 12 in a cornfield near Craighead County Road 607, west of Bay.

In the days following the discovery of Counce's body, investigators developed 
information that Tarver may have been involved in her disappearance and sought 
a search warrant for his Bay residence from District Judge Curt Huckaby. 
Officers arrested Tarver on July 17 following the execution of a search warrant 
by the Craighead County Sheriff's Department and the Bay Police Department.

On August 13, Ellington announced that he filed a 7-count felony information 
charging Tarver with capital murder, aggravated robbery, kidnapping, aggravated 
residential burglary, abuse of a corpse, theft of property, and possession of a 
defaced firearm.

The prosecutor explained that the abuse of a corpse charge stems from Tarver 
allegedly placing Counce's body in a cornfield, where it laid for nine days 
before being discovered by a search volunteer on July 12.

Tarver has been held in the Craighead County Detention Center since his arrest 
on July 17, 2015.

(source: KATV news)

***********

Family of Lavinda Counce supports death penalty decision


The family of Lavinda Counce spoke out Thursday after an announcement was made 
to seek the death penalty in the Bay woman's case.

Counce went missing in July 2015 and police arrested Richard Tarver for her 
murder a few weeks later.

The 2nd Judicial District Prosecuting Attorney Scott Ellington filed amended 
capital murder charges Thursday seeking the death penalty for Tarver.

Patsy Scott, a daughter of Counce, said her family supports his decision.

Ellington spoke with Scott and her family before he announced the decision.

Scott said they have been praying for justice for their mother since she went 
missing.

They are not the only ones asking for this.

Counce attended the NEA Wellness Center in Jonesboro to be a part of exercise 
classes.

Kara Fowler, a fitness coordinator at the center, said they still miss Counce 
in their classes.

She said she knows the time since they found her has been hard on the family.

"Well I know it was a hard time over Thanksgiving and Christmas and the new 
year and her birthday," Fowler said. "So this will be a good closure hopefully 
in seeking justice for her and for her family."

Scott knows they may not see anything for a while as the case moves through the 
court, but still cannot believe what happened.

"It's not something that you ever think will happen to your family in a little 
town like it did, but we're living it," Scott said.

To find some closure, the family erected a 12-foot cross in the spot where 
Counce's body was found.

Tarver is scheduled to be back in court on Mar. 3.

(source: KAIT news)






KANSAS:

Anti death penalty backers rally at Kansas state house


A bipartisan group of Kansas lawmakers that gather at the state house Thursday 
claimed that the state's death penalty is broken, and needs to come to an end.

House Bill 2515 would replace the death penalty with life in prison without 
parole.

The bill has 17 co-sponsors, including 11 Republicans.

Also in attendance was Floyd Bledsoe, who was recently exonerated for a murder 
he did not commit.

(source: WIBW news)

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

Floyd Bledsoe, exonerated in 1999 murder: 'The death penalty is 
unjust'----Bledsoe supports H.B. 2515, bipartisan bill to abolish the death 
penalty


51 days after he was released from prison, his conviction for a murder he 
didn???t commit wiped from the record, Floyd Bledsoe urged Kansas legislators 
to repeal the state's death penalty law Thursday.

"We must stop the death penalty today," he said. "Tomorrow it might be too late 
for one person."

Bledsoe spent 16 years behind bars for the 1999 murder of Camille Arfmann in 
Oskaloosa, a crime his brother admitted to committing in suicide notes last 
November.

Bledsoe said his experience proves the state's laws and court system are 
imperfect.

"The death penalty is unjust. Please stop it," he said during an anti-death 
penalty rally in the Statehouse Rotunda.

Legislation introduced in the Kansas House on Jan. 22 would do that. House Bill 
2515 was introduced by Rep. Steven Becker, R-Buhler, and co-sponsored by 16 
other representatives - 10 Republicans and 6 Democrats.

Becker, a retired judge, said his experience in the criminal justice system 
solidified his opposition to the death penalty. The "reasonable doubt" standard 
for proof in criminal cases is paradoxical to the death penalty, Becker argued.

"How can we impose the absolute certainty of death when we don't require the 
absolute certainty of guilt?" Becker asked.

Becker's bill would bar death sentences for anyone committing a crime on or 
after July 1, 2016. Defendants sentenced to death for a crime prior to July 1 
could still be executed. Kansas has not executed an inmate in more than a 
half-century.

Death sentences would be replaced by sentences of life imprisonment without the 
possibility of parole.

"When you kill somebody and realize you made a mistake, you can't make it 
right," said Rep. Barbara Ballard, D-Lawrence, a co-sponsor of the bill.

H.B. 2515 would also create a "death penalty abolition fund" under the control 
of the Kansas Department of Corrections. The bill would require the state 
budget director to collect cost savings stemming from abolition of the death 
penalty into the fund for use by the corrections department.

"Such cost savings shall include, but not be limited to, cost avoidance in the 
prosecution, defense, corrections and other associated costs resulting from the 
abolition of the death penalty," the bill states.

A co-sponsor, Rep. Bill Sutton, R-Gardner, spoke at Thursday's rally about the 
high fiscal costs of the state's death row, listing price tags for death 
penalty appeals and unused execution drugs. Sutton said he came to the 
Legislature to shrink the size of government.

"It doesn't make any sense. You get exactly nothing for your tax dollars," he 
said.

H.B. 2515 will now be considered by the House Judiciary Committee. 3 members of 
the committee are co-sponsors of the bill: Becker, Rep. Dennis Highberger, 
D-Lawrence, and Rep. Annie Kuether, D-Topeka.

Other co-sponsors of the bill are Reps. Steven Anthimides, R-Wichita, Lonnie 
Clark, R-Junction City, Susan Concannon, R-Beloit, Diana Dierks, R-Salina, John 
Doll, R-Garden City, Jerry Henry, D-Atchison, Michael Houser, R-Columbus, 
Roderick Houston, D-Wichita, Connie O???Brien, R-Tonganoxie, Tom Sawyer, 
D-Wichita, and Don Schroeder, R-Hesston.

Asked about the bill's chances this legislative session, Donna Schneweis, chair 
of the Kansas Coalition Against the Death Penalty, said a majority of the 
Kansas House is opposed to capital punishment.

"We are actively working to get the votes," she said.

At Thursday's rally, Henry made the Christian case for ending the death 
penalty, telling attendees that abolition squares with his pro-life views.

"Jesus Christ, our lord and savior, was himself a victim of capital 
punishment," he said.

(source: Topeka Capital-Journal)


MISSOURI:

Missouri Paid Executioners $250,000 In Cash, Possibly Violating Tax Law


The state pays its small team of executioners in cash to limit the paper trail. 
The state isn't sending proper paperwork to the IRS - experts told BuzzFeed 
News that it could be contributing to tax evasion.

Shortly before each execution in Missouri, a high-ranking corrections official 
takes envelopes filled with thousands of dollars in cash to the state's 
executioners. The cash limits the paper trail - and helps keep the identities 
of the executioners hidden.

Most of the envelopes are filled with hundred dollar bills. And on the outside, 
the envelopes carry instructions: They aren't to be opened until "completion of 
services rendered."

The executioners are given pseudonyms to protect their identities: M2, the 
nurse, gets $2,400, while M3, the anesthesiologist, gets the envelope marked 
$3,000. M7, the drug supplier, gets the most, an envelope filled with 
$7,178.88.

Missouri Director of Adult Institutions David Dormire has handed out nearly a 
hundred envelopes filled with cash since November 2013. Over that span of time, 
Dormire delivered $284,551.84 in cash to the small group of individuals who 
help the state carry out the death penalty, according to a BuzzFeed News review 
of receipts, an audit of the payments, a spreadsheet showing cash withdrawals, 
and memos marked "confidential" in which the payments were discussed.

"It seems very strange to me," said Sandy Freund, a law professor at Rutgers 
School of Law-Newark. "How could they possibly be paying in cash? That seems so 
ridiculous."

In fact, several experts who spoke with BuzzFeed News said the state???s 
methods raise serious questions about whether the state has followed federal 
tax law.

The Internal Revenue Service requires those who pay contractors $600 or more to 
file a disclosure called a 1099 with the agency, as well as with the person 
receiving the money. The disclosures notify the IRS that the agency should be 
checking to make sure the recipient is paying taxes on those payments.

But in response to a BuzzFeed News open records request, the Department of 
Corrections said it had no records about 1099s for the executioners. The 
department's internal procedures make no mention of 1099s or any other notice 
to the IRS.

Dormire, who handles the cash payments, said in a 2014 deposition that he was 
unaware of any 1099s being issued to the executioners or the IRS.

"You provide the Internal Revenue Service with proof they've been paid, do you 
not?" an attorney representing death row inmates asked him.

"I do not know," he responded.

The department of corrections was given more than 24 hours to respond to a 
request for comment, which it did not do. A spokesperson said only that the 
department was reviewing the inquiry.

Without informing the IRS that the state is handing out this amount of cash, 
the federal government has no way to ensure that the recipients are paying 
taxes. Experts BuzzFeed News spoke with said Missouri could be contributing to 
considerable tax evasion.

"I can't imagine why the state wouldn't be issuing 1099s here," said Bryan 
Camp, a former IRS employee who is now a law professor at Texas Tech. "I can't 
think of a good answer."

Freund echoed that, adding that she saw no exception that would exempt the 
state from issuing a 1099 in these circumstances.

The penalties for the state not issuing 1099s are relatively modest, the 
experts said - starting at $100 per 1099. But it can add up, especially if the 
violation was intentional. Another expert BuzzFeed News spoke with said he 
recently had advised a government entity that the IRS had assessed a penalty of 
more than $800,000 for not issuing 1099s.

These would be penalties for the state. But there are other penalties for the 
recipient if they did not disclose the cash payments to the IRS and pay taxes 
on them. Without a 1099, however, the IRS would not have a way to know to check 
if the recipients had paid their taxes.

"If they aren't state employees, then they should be receiving 1099s," Thomas 
Brennan, a law professor at Harvard who specializes in tax law, said bluntly.

Questions about the cash payments have been raised before. A February 2015 
audit by the Missouri Auditor's Office found that the Department of Corrections 
was not following its procedures for cash payments.

"The DOC did not record the amount of the cash payments on receipt forms signed 
by execution team members and did not always require the exchange of the cash 
payments to be acknowledged by a witness signature, as required by DOC 
procedures," the audit found.

That audit dealt with a small portion - $21,266 - of the cash that the 
Department of Corrections dispensed between March 2013 and February 2014.

"I can't imagine why the state wouldn't be issuing 1099s here."

An auditor that worked on the case told BuzzFeed News that they did not check 
to see if 1099s were being issued.

Dormire told the auditors that the problems the auditor found were "an 
oversight," and the Department of Corrections said it would enact stricter 
guidelines to ensure compliance.

But "confidential execution team member receipts" from well after the audit 
still show discrepancies. Some are lacking a witness signature, others are 
entirely blank, and many of the witnesses signed the receipts on different days 
than Dormire.

The department of corrections has not provided any explanation of the 
discrepancies.

In a brief statement, Auditor Nicole Galloway said that "it is the expectation 
of this office that audit recommendations are implemented." She also pointed to 
other audits that have criticized government agencies for not issuing 1099s. 
Galloway was appointed by Gov. Jay Nixon in April 2015, and, as such, did not 
oversee the department of corrections audit.

Nixon also appointed the head of the department of corrections, George 
Lombardi. Nixon???s office declined to comment on this story, instead directing 
questions to the department of corrections.

Lombardi defended paying the executioners in cash before a state legislative 
committee on government oversight in 2014. The committee did not ask about tax 
issues.

The top corrections official appeared frustrated that he had to appear before 
the committee. At the time, he was facing questions over the state's practice 
of executing inmates while appeals were still pending in the courts, as well as 
the purchase of execution drugs from a pharmacy that was not licensed to sell 
in the state.

"Yes, it is cash money," Lombardi told the committee. "They've made it clear 
that we wouldn't have the people required to carry out the death penalty" if it 
wasn't cash.

Lombardi is the person who signs off on the procedures governing the cash 
payments, and he said it has been longstanding policy to pay those who 
participate in executions in cash.

In a statement, Attorney General Chris Koster's office said "By law, we are 
charged with representing the Department of Corrections, and so we decline to 
comment."

Missouri is not the only state that pays its executioners in cash. BuzzFeed 
News has found evidence that, at the least, Arizona and Oklahoma do as well.

Arizona, though, has provided 1099s in conjunction with its executions. The 
state turned over redacted 1099s as part of ongoing litigation. The state's 
medical team leader, who was paid $18,000 per execution, also said in a 
deposition that Arizona gave him a 1099.

Oklahoma uses cash payments as well - but in that state, the payments are much 
smaller. Each executioner in Oklahoma is paid only $300 per lethal injection.

One doctor complained about his compensation for the 2014 botched execution of 
Clayton Lockett, a 43-minute lethal injection in which the inmate writhed and 
sat up on the gurney. Even though that execution was botched, and a 2nd one 
scheduled for that night wasn't carried out, the doctor was paid $600 - the 
price for both.

"Well I know the doctor was" paid for both, then-Warden Anita Trammell told 
investigators afterward. "Cause [redacted] got blood all over his jacket and I 
mean, it was a bloody mess. [Redacted] was complaining about that. [Redacted] 
says [redacted] gotta get enough money out of this to go buy a new jacket."

(source: BuzzFeedNews)

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

Missouri Senate Death Penalty Repeal Bill Reaches Historic Threshold


For the 1st time in modern state history, a Missouri legislative committee on 
Jan. 26, voted a bill repealing the death penalty (Senate Bill 816) "Do Pass"-- 
moving it closer to being debated on the Senate floor. Following testimony from 
exonerees, conservatives, a murder victim family member, a former police 
officer, attorneys and other citizens in support during a public hearing, 
members of the Senate's General Laws and Pensions Committee voted 4-2 for 
passage.

"We are moving this issue and the debate forward," notes a Wednesday press 
release from Sen. Paul Wieland of Imperial, sponsor of SB 816 and Missouri's 
1st Republican senator to do so. "I am a devout Catholic and I believe if I'm 
going to be pro-life, I should be so on both ends of the spectrum - from 
conception to natural death."

Among the 15 individuals to testify poignantly in support of (with four 
opposing) SB 816 over the course of 2 days were Josh Kezer and Kevin Green, 
each man wrongly convicted of murder and incarcerated for 16 years each, before 
being exonerated and freed. Both reported prosecutors had considered pursuing 
death sentences in their cases.

Green, a Jefferson City resident, said he preferred "terminal incarceration" 
(life in prison without parole) to the death penalty - including for the man 
who later confessed to killing his daughter, a crime for which he was wrongly 
convicted in California. Rather than offer an apology to him after he was 
freed, Green recalled the prosecuting attorney told reporters, "'if it wasn't 
for DNA, I could still convict him today.'"

Jennifer Bukowsky, a Columbia-based attorney and member of Missouri 
Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty (to view their website, log 
onto moconservativesoncerned.org), recommended the state "hit the pause button" 
and halt the death penalty because mistakes can and have been made. Bukowsky 
represented and helped secure the exoneration of Anthony Williams, who was 
wrongly convicted of a St. Louis murder at age 15 before being freed in 2014. 
"Just because a person's in prison doesn't mean the case is solved."

Missouri's Public Defender Michael Barrett highlighted the extreme costs that 
come with capital punishment. Barrett reported his office in 2009, for 
instance, utilized about $5000 in resources defending each individual charged 
with 1st-degree murder and facing a sentence of life without the possibility of 
parole. That same year, in comparison, the public defenders committed $166,000 
in resources to defend each trial involving a death sentence. The public 
defenders, he explained, are bound by federal requirements to dedicate 
extensive resources to those facing the harshest state sanction, hamstringing 
his office's efforts to diligently represent impoverished Missourians - an 
undertaking already severely compromised with the state's public defenders 
being the 2nd most poorly funded in the nation.

End the death penalty, Barrett notes, and Missouri would also free funds spent 
by his office, prosecutors and other officials on a comparatively few murder 
cases - resources which could be made available to help address other unmet 
public safety needs, including dramatically expanding the testing of untested 
rape kits and investigating the hundreds of unsolved murders in the state.

(source: MADP)






SOUTH DAKOTA:

Legislators attempt to repeal death penalty in South Dakota


2 dozen state legislators have sponsored a bill to repeal South Dakota's death 
penalty.

Sen. Arthur Rusch, R-Vermillion, a retired circuit court judge, and Rep. 
Timothy Johns, R-Lead, serve as the prime sponsors on Senate Bill 94 to strike 
the death penalty from state law. The bipartisan bill is sponsored by a total 
of 15 Democrats and 9 Republicans.

A Class A felony is currently the only capital offense in South Dakota and 18 
people have been executed since South Dakota became a state in 1877, according 
to the state Department of Corrections.

The most recent executions in the state occurred in Oct. 2012, when Eric Robert 
and Donald Moeller were executed in Sioux Falls by lethal injection. Robert was 
executed for the homicide of Senior Correctional Officer Ron Johnson while 
Moeller received a lethal injection for the rape and murder of a 9-year-old 
girl in 1990. There are currently 3 South Dakota inmates who have been 
sentenced to death.

If approved, the bill would eliminate capital punishment for the law, but Class 
A felons would no longer be eligible for parole. The bill would also strike 
sections 3 and 4 of the law, which offer instructions to jurors in cases where 
the death penalty may be authorized.

The bill, which was introduced Tuesday, was referred to the Senate State 
Affairs Committee, and if approved, South Dakota would become the 20th state to 
abolish the death penalty.

A similar bill, 2015's Senate Bill 121, was deferred by the Senate State 
Affairs Committee in a 7-2 vote.

(source: Grand Forks Herald)