[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, GA., OHIO, TENN., KY., ARK.

[Rick Halperin]

July 7



TEXAS----stay of impending execution

Texas halts scheduled execution pending drug test


The scheduled July 14 execution of a man convicted in the slaying of a medical 
student robbed of $40 has been postponed indefinitely.

A Texas prison system spokesman said Wednesday that a state district judge in 
Houston has withdrawn the execution order for Perry Eugene Williams pending 
test results for the drugs to be used in his execution. The Texas Attorney 
General's Office had agreed in a lawsuit filed on Williams' behalf to have the 
drugs tested before his execution.

Williams is set to die for the 2000 slaying of Baylor College of Medicine 
student Matthew Carter.

Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokesman Jason Clark says the delay 
doesn't affect the state's next scheduled lethal injection, the Aug. 10 
execution of Ramiro Gonzales for the 2001 slaying of an 18-year-old woman in 
Medina County.

(source: Associated Press)

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

xecutions under Greg Abbott, Jan. 21, 2015-present----19

Executions in Texas: Dec. 7, 1982----present-----537

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

20---------August 10----------------Ramiro Gonzales-------538

21---------August 23----------------Robert Pruett---------539

22---------August 31----------------Rolando Ruiz----------540

23---------September 14-------------Robert Jennings-------541

24---------October 19---------------Terry Edwards---------542

(sources: TDCJ & Rick Halperin)

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

Indicted: Man Charged In Shooting Death of Stepson


An Olney man is indicted for capital murder for the shooting death of his 
3-year-old stepson.

Clay County Sheriff Kenny Lemons said the grand jury met Wednesday and indicted 
George Coty Wayman for capital murder. Sheriff Lemons said he is very proud of 
the job District Attorney Paige Williams did in presenting the details of the 
case to ensure a solid indictment.

3-year-old Dominic Castro was shot on the afternoon of May 18. Initially, 
witnesses told investigators he was jumping on the bed and caused a gun on the 
bed to accidentally go off. But, Sheriff Lemons said interviews soon revealed 
Wayman pointed the gun at Dominic. Witnesses also said police that if he did 
not stop jumping on the bed he'd shoot him. Lemons said Wayman then fired the 
gun and struck Dominic in the back of the head.

At Dominic's funeral, a family friend described him as being a fun-loving and 
sweet little boy who loved hugs and who never knew a stranger.

In Texas, a capital murder conviction can carry a death penalty sentence if 
prosecutors chose to pursue it.

(source: texomashomepage.com)






GEORGIA----impending execution

Clemency hearing set for Georgia death row inmate


Representatives seeking clemency for death row inmate John Wayne Conner are to 
meet with the State Board of Pardons and Paroles at 9 a.m. on Wednesday, the 
day before Conner is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection at the 
Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison in Jackson.

Conner received the death sentence, set for 7 p.m. July 14, for the January 
1982 murder of James T. White in Telfair County. A jury found Conner guilty of 
malice murder, armed robbery and motor vehicle theft that July, sentencing him 
to death. In May 1983, the Georgia Supreme Court affirmed his convictions for 
malice murder and motor vehicle theft and his death sentence, but reversed his 
armed robbery conviction.

The U.S. Supreme Court denied Conner's appeal on Feb. 29.

The Parole Board, which has the sole constitutional authority to grant clemency 
and commute or reduce a death sentence to life with the possibility of parole 
or to life without the possibility of parole, only considers commutation of a 
death-sentenced inmate after all judicial avenues of relief appear to have been 
exhausted.

The meeting is expected to be closed, as authorized by Georgia law, and no 
public comment will be taken at the meeting nor any other business conducted.

(source: Albany Herald)

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

Panel to hold clemency hearing for Georgia death row inmate


The Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles has scheduled a clemency hearing for 
an inmate scheduled to be executed next week.

The parole board said in a news release Wednesday that supporters of 
60-year-old John Wayne Conner can appear before the board on July 13. Conner is 
set to be executed July 14 at the state prison in Jackson.

Conner was convicted of beating his friend J.T. White to death in January 1982 
during an argument after a night of drinking and marijuana use.

The parole board is the only entity authorized to commute a death sentence in 
Georgia.

Conner's attorneys have also asked a judge to halt his execution. They say 
Conner is intellectually disabled and, therefore, ineligible for execution. The 
state counters that those arguments are procedurally barred.

(source: Associated Press)






OHIO:

Ohio Supreme Court to hear local death-row appeal


The Ohio Supreme Court is expected to hear an appeal from death-row inmate 
Steven Cepec next week.

Cepec, now 47, became the 1st person to receive the death penalty from a Medina 
County court in 60 years when he was sentenced in April 2013. He was convicted 
of killing Frank Munz, a 73-year-old Chatham Township historian, using the claw 
end of a hammer and a lamp cord on June 3, 2010 - just 6 days after being 
released from prison for other crimes.

The Ohio Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in Cepec's case Wednesday in 
Columbus.

A document of more than 150 pages filed by Cepec's appeal attorney, Nathan Ray, 
contests Cepec's sentence. The document outlines 7 arguments against the case's 
outcome based on the actions of the now-retired judge who heard the case, the 
prosecution and Cepec's defense counsel:

--The document alleges the court should have had a competency hearing for the 
victim's nephew, who served as a witness against Cepec, because Common Pleas 
Judge James L. Kimbler asked the attorneys if the witness was "developmentally 
challenged."

A document filed by county Assistant Prosecutor Matthew Kern in response to the 
appeal said Cepec's defense counsel did not request a hearing during the trial 
and the judge's statement was just a "whimsical question in an attempt to 
convince the prosecutor to change his approach."

--The appeal argues Kimbler should have considered more deeply defense attorney 
Kerry O'Brien's request for a mistrial after a witness mentioned Cepec's prior 
criminal record.

Kern argued this mention was insufficient for a mistrial and Cepec's prior 
burglary convictions were discussed later during the trial.

--The document argued that statements made by Cepec to police after he asked 
for an attorney should not have been included in the trial.

A response filed by Kern argues the phrasing Cepec used to request a lawyer was 
ambiguous and he received multiple warnings reminding him he could ask for 
counsel during the interrogation.

--According to the appeal, the defense counsel presented inconsistent arguments 
during the trial, particularly in the opening and closing statements. The 
document argues these changes and other alleged errors show Cepec's legal 
representation was "deficient."

Kern argued these deficiencies "were strategic decisions made by counsel in the 
face of overwhelming evidence of Cepec's guilt."

--The appeal holds the prosecution's closing arguments were "improper" and 
confused the details of the case with aggravating circumstances, perhaps 
causing the jury to choose the death penalty instead of a lighter sentence.

A document filed by Kern said the prosecution was "careful to note" the 
difference between circumstances in the case.

--In a court filing, Ray argued the trial was unfair because Kimbler repeatedly 
interrupted witnesses and defense counsel, including taking over the 
questioning of witnesses several times.

Kern responded through a court document that the questioning was not 
prejudicial and the prosecution similarly was interrupted by Kimbler.

--The final argument in the appeal disputes the constitutionality of the death 
penalty and argues that the current sentencing system is vague, leading to the 
"arbitrary imposition of the death penalty."

A document filed by Kern said the argument against the death penalty commonly 
is raised and "consistently rejected" by courts.

County Prosecutor Dean Holman said death penalty cases frequently are appealed.

"I can't think of one from any county that they have not," he said.

County Assistant Prosecutor James Price, Holman and Kern will present the 
state's side of the case at the hearing. Akron-based attorneys Adam VanHo and 
Ray will represent Cepec's.

Cepec is no longer the only former Medina County resident on death row at the 
Chillicothe Correctional Institution. Earlier this year James Tench, 30, 
received the death penalty after being convicted of killing his 55-year-old 
mother and disposing her body near their shared Brunswick home.

Cepec and Tench are among 137 men and 1 woman on death row in Ohio.

Since early 2014, executions in Ohio have been on hold due to a shortage of 
lethal injection drugs. The next execution in Ohio is scheduled for January.

(source: Medina Gazette)






TENNESSEE:

East Tennessee Man';s death penalty conviction being upheld


The death penalty is being upheld for one East Tennessee man convicted of 
killing and dismembering 2 people.

Howard Hawk Willis was found guilty and sentenced in 2010.

Willis was found guilty of the murders of 2 Walker County teenagers.

Adam Chrismer and Samantha Leming were killed and dismembered by Willis in 
Washington County, Tennessee.

In October, Willis appealed his case to the Supreme Court, but his convictions 
and sentencing were upheld.

(source: WDEF news)






KENTUCKY:

The last public execution in the United States


Aug. 14 will mark the 80th anniversary of the last public execution in the 
United States.

Rainey Bethea, a 27-year-old black man, was publicly hanged in Owensboro, Ky. 
on Aug. 14, 1936 for the rape of Lischia Edwards, a 70-year-old white woman. 
Not only did an estimated 20,000 people, including thousands from out of town, 
gather to watch the execution, the circumstances of the execution and the media 
circus that ensued embarrassed members of the Kentucky legislature enough to 
put an end to public executions in Kentucky and the United States.

Bethea, originally from Roanoke, Va., arrived in Owensboro in 1933 where he 
worked as a laborer earning $7 per week.

In 1935, he was charged with breach of the peace and fined $20.

Shortly thereafter, Bethea was caught stealing 2 purses valued at more than $25 
each (equivalent to approximately $550 today) from a beauty shop and was 
convicted of grand larceny, a felony.

He was sentenced to 1 year in the Kentucky State Penitentiary and was paroled 
in December 1935.

Less than 1 month after his release, Bethea was arrested again for breaking and 
entering into a house.

The charge was later amended to drunk and disorderly. However, because he 
couldn't pay the $100 fine (the equivalent of $1,738 today) he remained 
incarcerated until April 18, 1936.

On June 7, 1936, a drunken Bethea entered Edwards??? home and woke her when he 
climbed into her bedroom window.

After Bethea violently raped and choked Edwards, he searched her home for 
valuables and stole several rings.

Bethea, who removed his prison ring and inadvertently left it behind at 
Edward's house, stashed the stolen jewelry in a nearby barn.

Edwards' body was discovered late the same morning when concerned neighbors had 
not heard Edwards stirring about in her room and decided to make a welfare 
check.

It was the coroner who found Bethea's celluloid prison ring, which several 
people told police they had seen Bethea wearing.

Because Bethea had a criminal record, police were able to employ new 
fingerprint technology to match Bethea's prints to items he touched in Edwards' 
bedroom.

After eluding police for several days Bethea was eventually spotted again on a 
river bank where he attempted to hop a barge.

When police questioned Bethea, he denied he was Bethea and told them his name 
was James Smith.

Bethea was arrested and later identified as Bethea by a scar on his head.

To avoid a lynch mob, a circuit court judge ordered the sheriff to transport 
Bethea to a county jail in Louisville.

It was during the transfer that Bethea confessed to raping Edwards and 
strangling her to death while lamenting about leaving his prison ring behind at 
the scene.

On June 12, 1936, Bethea made another confession as to where he stashed the 
stolen jewelry.

Under the statutes in force at the time, if the death penalty was given for 
murder and robbery, it had to be carried out by electrocution at the state 
penitentiary.

However, the punishment for rape could be carried out by public hanging in the 
county seat where the crime occurred, so prosecutors decided to only charge 
Bethea with rape.

After less than 2 hours, the grand jury indicted Bethea on the rape charge.

Bethea was never charged with murder or any other crime.

The night before his trial, Bethea decided he wanted to plead guilty, which he 
did the next day.

Prosecutors still had to present their case to jurors at trial because they 
would be the ones who decided Bethea's sentence.

The case was infamous in Owensboro and surrounding areas but gained national 
attention because Daviess County Sheriff Florence Shoemaker Thompson, whose 
duty it was to hang Bethea, was a woman.

Thompson became sheriff in 1936 after her husband Everett Thompson, who was 
elected sheriff in 1933, died unexpectedly of pneumonia in April 1936.

After it became public knowledge Thompson would perform the hanging, letters to 
the sheriff poured in by the hundreds, including one from Arthur L. Hash, a 
former Louisville police officer, who offered to perform the hanging for free 
and only asked that his name not be released to the public.

Thompson promptly accepted his offer.

Chief Deputy U.S. Marshal for the District of Indiana also sent Thompson a 
letter informing her of a farmer from Illinois named G. Phil Hanna who had 
supervised numerous hangings across the country, although he never actually 
pulled the trigger that released the trapdoor.

Hanna apparently became interested in the art of hanging after witnessing the 
botched execution of Fred Behme in 1986 in McLeansboro, Ill, which resulted in 
Behme suffering.

Some people may recall the story about the hanging execution of convicted 
murderer Eva Dugan at the state prison in Florence, Ariz. in 1930, which 
resulted in her decapitation and influenced the state to replace hanging with 
lethal gas.

Hanna wanted to provide assistance with hangings to ensure a quick and painless 
death, although he didn't always achieve that goal.

In 1920, during the hanging of James Johnson, the rope broke and Johnson was 
severely injured when he fell to the ground and Hanna had to carry Johnson back 
up the scaffold to carry out the execution.

Bethea was the 70th hanging execution Hanna supervised.

Gov. Albert Benjamin "Happy" Chandler signed Bethea's execution warrant, 
setting the execution for sunrise on Aug. 14 in the courthouse yard.

Thompson requested a revised death warrant since the county had just planted 
new shrubs and flowers in the courthouse yard at great expense and didn't want 
spectators trampling the gardens.

A 2nd death warrant was subsequently issued, moving the execution to an empty 
lot near the county garage.

Bethea ate his last meal, consisting of fried chicken, pork chops, mashed 
potatoes, pickled cucumbers, cornbread, lemon pie and ice cream at 4 p.m. on 
Aug. 13.

Hanna visited Bethea in jail and instructed him he would need to stand on the X 
marked on the trapdoor.

On the morning of the hanging, Hash arrived drunk in a white suit and Panama 
hat. At that point, no one but he and Thompson knew he would be pulling the 
trigger.

Hanna placed the noose around Bethea's neck, adjusted it and signaled Hash to 
pull the trigger.

The crowd watched in silence.

Hash was apparently too drunk to respond. Hanna yelled at Hash to "do it" to no 
avail.

Instead, a deputy leaned onto the trigger, springing the trapdoor and dropping 
Bethea 8 feet, breaking his neck instantly.

Despite Bethea wanting his body sent to his sister in South Carolina, he was 
buried in a pauper's grave at a cemetery in Owensboro.

Bill Shelton recalls in a YouTube video his parents taking him to the execution 
when he was young child.

Stating there were hawkers everywhere selling sandwiches and Coca Cola, Shelton 
said you would have thought you were at a picnic rather than an execution.

Newspapers from all over, after having spent considerable money to cover the 
first execution performed by a woman, left disappointed.

Several took liberties in reporting about the execution, some claimed Thompson 
fainted, while others claimed the crowd stormed the scaffolding for souvenirs.

The media circus surrounding the execution embarrassed members of the Kentucky 
General Assembly and prompted Sen. William R. Attkinsson, representing 
Louisville, to introduce Senate Bill 69 in 1938.

The bill, which passed both chambers and was signed into law by Gov. Albert 
Benjamin "Happy" Chandler on March 12, 1938, repealed the section of statute 
requiring death sentences for the crime of rape to be conducted by hanging in 
the county seat where the crime was committed.

The legislature only met biennially at the time, which is why it took until 
1938 to introduce a bill.

Chandler subsequently expressed regret over signing the bill and stated, "Our 
streets are no longer safe."

There were 2 other men hanged for rape in Kentucky after Bethea in 1937 but the 
trial court judges in both cases ordered the hangings to be conducted 
privately.

(source: sonorannews.com)



ARKANSAS:

Executions could return to Arkansas after SC ruling----State wants to set 
lethal injection dates for nine men on death row


According to Amnesty International, there were 1,634 recorded executions in the 
world in 2015, the highest documented by the organization since 1989.

The countries most commonly holding the executions were Iran, Pakistan and 
Saudi Arabia. China was excluded from the list as its executions remain secret, 
Amnesty International stated on its website, amnesty.org.

The United States recorded 28 executions from 6 states in 2015.

New execution dates for nine men on death row in Arkansas have yet to be named 
as of press time, but their attorney plans on filing an appeal petition after 
the state Supreme Court ruled June 23 that it is constitutional to keep the 
maker and seller of the lethal injection drugs a secret.

"It puts into question how civilized we are, that we would actually kill people 
as a state - that means the leadership but the people too, we???re agreeing to 
kill people," Sister Joan Pytlik, DC, minister for religious at the Diocese of 
Little Rock. "Most of them are either mentally ill, had a terrible childhood, 
they did (their crime) while they were under the influence of drugs and maybe 
don't even know they did it. Where is our mercy? Where is our compassion? Yes 
to the victims, but also to these broken people."

Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge said she will request new dates for 
the inmates to be executed, saying in a statement on the attorney general 
website, arkansasag.gov, "I know that victims' families want to see justice 
carried out."

Attorney Jeff Rosenzweig, who represents the inmates, told the Arkansas 
Democrat-Gazette that his office is working on a "timely rehearing petition."

Sister Joan, a member of the Arkansas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, 
said justice means a life sentence.

"The 9 who have brought the suit would all say that a life sentence can be more 
difficult than a death sentence. You figure you have your whole life to live 
locked up," Sister Joan said. "... The word justice means 'right relationship.' 
To have some compassion and mercy for broken people is a right relationship. 
You never find closure through execution."

Decision details

Court decisions take 18 days to be certified, making it official July 11. 
Rutledge did not request to expedite formalizing the ruling although one of the 
state's lethal injection drugs expired on June 30 and the seller will not 
provide more drugs. However, it is unclear if the state has another drug 
source.

In a June 23 statement, the Arkansas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty 
said it is "deeply troubled by the court's departure from established 
precedent." Currently, 34 men are on death row in Arkansas and the state has 
not executed anyone since 2005.

"Today's ruling announces that the state is no longer bound to agreements that 
it chooses not to abide by and that our state's Freedom of Information Act can 
be easily circumvented," ACADP stated. "Under current law, prisoners are 
strapped with the burden of proving that there is a known and available 
alternative to the state's current execution protocol, and while this law 
requires those condemned to death row to basically plan their own executions, 
the prisoner's identification of 5 alternatives to the state's current of 
execution was still not sufficient for the court."

Rosenzweig filed a lawsuit last year when Act 1096 became law, allowing the 
sources of the 3-drug lethal cocktail to remain anonymous. Advocates for the 
law have said companies could face criticism if it were revealed that their 
drugs assisted in executions.

The inmates argued that because state law allowed information about the source 
of the 3 drugs - midazolam, vecuronium bromide and potassium chloride - to 
remain a secret, they could not determine whether or not they could be 
subjected to cruel and unusual punishment. Austin Sarat, a professor of 
jurisprudence and political science at Amherst College in Massachusetts, stated 
in his 2014 book, "Gruesome Spectacles: Botched Executions and America's Death 
Penalty," that from 1890 to 2010, 8,776 people were executed and something went 
wrong in 276 (or 3.15 %) of executions. Lethal injections were more commonly 
botched.

On Dec. 3, 2015, Pulaski County Circuit Judge Wendell Griffen called the law 
unconstitutional, which further stayed the executions.

The Arkansas Supreme Court voted 4-3 in favor of the law, saying in its ruling 
that "disclosing the information is actually detrimental to the process."

In June 2015, drugs valued at $24,226.40 were purchased for 8 of the 
executions.

Pro-life stance

Both Bishop Anthony B. Taylor and Pope Francis, through Archbishop Carlo Maria 
Vigano, apostolic nuncio to the United States, appealed to the state 
legislature and Gov. Asa Hutchinson last year to stop the executions.

"God's gift of life is sacred, regardless of a person's usefulness to society, 
which means that there is no justification whatsoever to take the lives of 
people who are locked away and pose no further threat to society," Bishop 
Taylor said Sept. 4.

Hutchinson originally set the executions for October 2015. Hutchinson's 
spokesman J.R. Davis said in a statement to Arkansas Catholic: "Gov. Hutchinson 
believes Judge Griffen overstepped his authority and is pleased the Arkansas 
Supreme Court reversed his ruling upholding the law protecting the 
confidentiality of the supplier. The governor is now reviewing the decision and 
is conferring with the attorney general about what are the appropriate next 
steps to take."

ACADP has argued the death penalty is costly and there is "proven racial 
disparity" in the state's death penalty.

In 2015, the ACADP drafted Senate Bill 298 that proposed the abolition of the 
death penalty. Though it was the 1st time such a bill passed in committee, it 
was not put before the state Senate. In 2017, the group plans on drafting 
another bill that replaces the death penalty with a life sentence. According to 
the Death Penalty Information Center, it costs taxpayers $90,000 more per year 
to house a death row inmate than an inmate in a regular prison.

How you can help

"As Catholics we need to pray that the governor, attorney general and 
legislature will find mercy in their hearts, and respond to Pope Francis' call 
for an end to the death penalty worldwide," Sister Joan said. "To that end, we 
can send the postcards supplied by Catholic Charities to give our message to 
the governor."

Catholic Charities of Arkansas printed postcards for ACADP that are available 
at Christ the King Church and St. John Center in Little Rock and some Central 
Arkansas parishes, said Karen DiPippa, director of the CCA Westside Free 
Medical Clinic.

(source: Arkansas Catholic)